


We're Slightly Less Screwed

by teroinreadsteroinwrites



Series: Blake and Slater [2]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Other, revenge of the fallen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-15 22:40:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 27,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7241695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teroinreadsteroinwrites/pseuds/teroinreadsteroinwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to We Are So Screwed</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Frustration

  
  
“Red!” I heard as I approached the table at the mess hall I sat at. I sat with Slater, Epps, Lennox and their team, which included Fig, Mike, Jared, Graham and Katherine, who we all called Kat.  
  
It was nice to have friends, even if we weren’t the closest bunch. Slater and I had been to it being exactly that, Slater and I. Most people only wanted to be around us because of our money and our family connections. No one in Lennox’s team gave a shit, which was a change that we welcomed with open arms.  
  
Fig was just happy to have someone, who understood him, when he went off on a tangent in Spanish. Mike was a smart ass, who more often than not pissed everyone else in the group off. We just couldn’t get rid o him for some reason. Jared was the nice guy of the group. It was hard to imagine him in action, fighting cons. I mean he acted as if I would hurt him, to hurt a fly. Graham was stoic. Getting any type of read on him was damn near impossible, so we just assumed that he was okay, since Lennox and Epps did. Last, but not lease, there was Kat. Kat and I were either best friends or the worst of enemies. It just depended on the day. She wasn’t fond of my special treatment, since I was the All Spark, nor was she a fan of my blatant disregard for authority. I wasn’t a fan of her constant nagging nor her wicked attitude.  
  
“How the fuck am I still Red?” I asked, sitting down with my bowl of cereal and carton of milk. I set it down and ran a hand through my now blonde hair. I didn’t do it for any particular reason. My hair grew fast, faster than a normal person’s. I had to get haircuts often or else it became way too much to handle. I was too lazy to dye it again, so I just grew it out.  
  
“Shit!” I swore when I thought I felt my hair get stuck on my nail. I checked it for anything that would need filed or touched up before turning to my food.  
  
“I have never seen someone so damn obsessed with their nails,” Lennox said.  
  
“She’s OCD.”  
  
“Fuck off, Slater.”  
  
“Make me bitch.”  
  
“Cat fight!” Mike said happily.  
  
Katherine smacked him upside the head. “Pig.”  
  
I rolled my eyes, before turning my attention to the others. “So what’s on the agenda for you guys today?” I asked.  
  
“Training, training, lunch, training, a meeting with Galloway, then dinner, and we’re done for the day.”  
  
“So glad I don’t have to deal with that asshole,” Mike said.  
  
“I’ll agree with you on that one,” Katherine said.  
  
“What do you two have to do?” Fig asked Slater and I.  
  
“I have to work,” Slater said.  
  
“You still work?” they asked her.  
  
“It’s an apprenticeship. I’m not going to be some fucking scratcher. Hell no!”  
  
“Scratcher?”  
  
“It’s a tattoo thing,” I answered. “I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t end up in Diego Garcia like I thought we would. Diego Garcia would be pretty and isolated, but we’re much better of here. Even though I’m still isolated.” I tagged on the last part with a scowl.  
  
“When you can fully hide the All Spark’s signature, you may once again go out and interact with the world.”  
  
“Whatever Ratchet,” I said. Then it clicked in my head. “Ratchet?” I turned around and was surprised at what I[saw](http://imageshack.com/a/img829/2205/7e52.jpg). “NO FUCKING WAY!” I screamed. “They work?”  
  
“There will need to be additional test, but yes for the most part the holoforms work mostly in part to your work,” he said. His usual frown turned into a slight smile.  
  
I squealed and jumped up and down. I’d been working with Ratchet for months on the holoform tech. I had yet to see one fully working though. Ratchet didn’t leave, and I knew there was something else. “I take it that’s not the only reason you’re here?” I asked.  
  
“Nope. It’s time for your examination and training.”  
  
“Didn’t I push myself enough yesterday?” I whined.  
  
“You’re the one that made it clear you hoped to be in control of you All Spark power soon. I am only helping you do as you wish.”  
  
“Cause you’re such a people pleaser,” I scoffed.  
  
“I’ll take your stuff,” Katherine volunteered.  
  
“Thanks Kat. All right Hatchet let’s go.”  
  
“I told you quit calling me that.”  
  
“And I want my nails to never break. Some things just aren’t gonna happen.” I followed him out of the mess hall and to the medbay. He picked me up and set me on the berth. Just then Prime walked in. Doing my training with Prime was way better. He was more patient than Ratchet, and his presence kept Ratchet from bitching me out.  
  
“I can’t wait until the next wave of bots arrive,” I said off handedly, while Ratchet worked on setting up a drone that he wanted me to activate.  
  
I had a routine. They figured that if I possessed the All Spark’s power, I possessed the power to create life. They also thought that I should be able to heal bots. Then there was the last part, masking my energy, so that I could go out in public without cons riding my ass. Ratchet set the drone in front of me.  
  
“Now Blake, it seems lately that your problem hasn’t been expelling your energy. You’ve been doing that just fine. It seems that you release too much and short all of the drone’s circuits,” Ratchet explained.  
  
“So I fry it?”  
  
“Yes,” Optimus said.  
  
“Any suggestions on how not to fry it?” I asked.  
  
“You’re the one, who saw Primus,” Ratchet said.  
  
“He didn’t exactly give me a fucking manual. There was no damn _How To Be the All Spark 101_.”  
  
“If you could withhold your energy, then you’d be able to choose how much you output.”  
  
“So I have to go back to trying to mask it?” I asked. I wasn’t happy about it at all. Completely holding the energy in was difficult, so difficult in fact I couldn’t do it.  
  
“I believe so.” Optimus said. “Do not fret though. If you can’t begin to master it today, we still have today and the next day.”  
  
“Blake you just need to focus and quit worrying about stupid things like your nails, shoes and hair.”  
  
“You telling me to focus only frustrates me! It pisses me off to no fucking end! IF IT WAS FOCUS THAT WOULD FUCKING WORK, THEN I WOULDN’T BE HERE RIGHT NOW, BUT I WOULD BE DRIVING DOWN RODEO DRIVE IN MY BUGATI TO GO SHOPPING!” I screeched. I was starting to go a little stir crazy.  
  
“I think that is enough for today,” Optimus said, giving his CMO a pointed look. Optimus picked me up and set me down on the ground. “I will make sure that Galloway understands that you just aren’t up to his questioning today.”  
  
“If that fucker comes looking for me, I don’t give a fuck, who I piss off I am going to choke the shit out of him.” I stormed out of the medbay and started to look for something to do. I don’t know why though. I went to my room. I slammed the door shut, put in my CD that was a mix of the Runaways and Joan Jett and the Black Hearts. I twisted my hair up into a sloppy bun, and sat down at my desk and started staring at the things on trying to come up with an idea for something. I failed.  
  
I moved over to my bed and dug around in my night stand pulling out my Q-tips and cotton balls. They were followed by nail polish remover. I began to take of the gun metal nail polish that currently coated them. My cuticles were already perfect, so I began to dig around for a color nothing really caught my eye, until I sat the electric blue sitting at the bottom of the drawer unopened. Painting my nails was second nature to me. I never worried about making mistakes and painting my finger. Instead I thought about other things.  
  
 _“What kind of crap are you on?” I asked_[Casey](http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130711013037/harrypotterfanon/images/c/c8/Alex-Pettyfer-alex-pettyfer-20059728-1280-960.jpg).  
  
He looked up from his spot out by the pool and smiled at me. “I’m not on anything,” he said. “I’m doing yoga.”  
  
“I see that. Why?” I raised an eye brow at him.  
  
“I’m trying to center myself. Once you’ve centered yourself, you’re in control of yourself.”  
  
“So what? If I had booze in my system and I was centered, I could control it?”  
  
“Not exactly, more like you control the energy in yourself.”  
  
“So if I had energon in my system, I could control it?” I pressed.  
  
“Considering it is a foreign substance and a form of energy you might be able to, but we’ll never have to worry about that. Meditation is better suited for centering yourself, focusing on the energy within you.”  
  
“Bursting my bubble,” I muttered. “I can dream they’re real. Plus I wouldn’t be able to control it anyways. I would get energon poisoning. Not fun.”  
  
“It scares me how seriously you take Transformers.”  
  
“If you tell anyone, I’ll kill you,” I threatened. I grabbed my air mattress and threw it into the pool. I got in and laid down on it. After a few moments I had to ask. “How much of what you said did you make up?”  
  
“I’m not gonna say I made it up. It’s just my way of interpreting it.”  
  
“Only you.”  
  
“You love me.”  
  
“I don’t have any other option.”  
  
I floated around for a little while in silence. I knew Casey was still there, but he wasn’t gonna say anything else. I was just fine to soak up some sun.  
  
“COWABUNGA! ” Slater screamed. She jumped in the pool practically on top of me causing me to fall off of my raft.  
  
“You made a funny,” Casey said. “Master Splinter always relevant.”  
  
“SLATER!” I screeched driving after her. “I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!”  
  
“Might as well join in.” Casey dove in and splashed me. I splashed right back before jumping onto Slater’s back and pushing her under the water.  
  
That’s when it hit me. If I could just center myself, I might be able to control the All Spark energy within me. I finished up my nails, before doing exactly as Casey had done that day. I remembered that day perfectly. It was one of the better ones, one of the last ones like it.  
  
Despite how stupid I thought he was doing it, I began to understand it. As I relaxed and began to get more into it, I couldn’t help but feel more focused on myself, not in my usual shallow way. It kind of felt like something was pooling up inside of me, in my chest.  
  
I thought I had it as soon as I did, I walked over to the little mechanical bug I had. I set it down on my desk and put a hand over it. I thought about the pool of energy and letting it flow to my hand. It glowed for a moment.  
  
“What the fuck are you doing?” Slater asked, Starbucks in hand.  
  
She scared the hell out of me and I lost control of the flow. It sent a bright blue flash through the desk. All of the electronics on it began to transform and soon enough they were shooting.  
  
“Shit!” I swore. I pushed past Slater. “Run!”  
  
“God damn it!” She went tearing out after me.  
  
“LENNOX!”  
  
“EPPS!”  
  
“KAT!”  
  
“MIKE!”  
  
“ANY BOT WITH A HOLOFORM!”  
  
“Blake why didn’t you just fry them?” Slater asked.  
  
“Cause they’re the first ones I’ve made,” I answered, running toward the medbay.


	2. Don't Cry Over Spilled Coffee, Flip Shit Over Evil Mini Bots

## ver Spilled Coffee, Flip Shit Over Evil Mini Bots

  


I was sitting at the usual table in the mess hall with Epps, Lennox, and their team. Fig was there, so was Mike, the smart ass. He and Blake bickered nonstop, Jared, the nice guy of the group, Graham, the Captain Serious of the squad, and Katherine, the only girl on the team, were there as well. Fig and Bobby were bickering about some fuckery, and I was ignoring it. I was thinking about all of the shit I had to do at work today. I snapped out of my thoughts, when I heard one of the guys yell, “Red!” I looked up and saw Blake walking toward us, snickering.

“How the fuck am I still Red?” Blake asked as she sat down. Her hair grows fast as shit, and she neglected to dye it. _I’ll have to take care of that later,_ I thought to myself.

“Shit!” she looked down at her nails.

“I have never seen someone so damn obsessed with their nails,” Lennox said.

“She’s OCD,” I replied.

“Fuck off, Slater.”

“Make me bitch.”

“Cat fight!” Mike said in that happy voice most boys have perfected by the age of twelve.

Katherine smacked him upside the head as she called him a pig.

Blake and I laughed. It’s always funny, when Katherine tries to keep them in check.

“So what’s on the agenda for you guys today?” Blake asked.

“Training, training, lunch, training, a meeting with Galloway, then dinner and we’re done for the day.”

“So glad I don’t have to deal with that asshole,” Mike said.

“I’ll agree with you on that one,” Katherine said.

“What do you two have to do?” Fig asked Blake and I.

“I have to work,” I said, getting up from the table.

“You still work?” a few of them asked at the same time.

“It’s an apprenticeship. I’m not going to be some fucking scratcher. Hell no!” I replied. No fucking way was I going to skip my apprenticeship and tattoo from some shady back room in a club or some shit. Fuck no.

“Scratcher?”

“It’s a tattoo thing,” Blake explained, knowing I couldn’t without going on a long ass rant. “I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t end up in Diego Garcia like I thought we would. Diego Garcia would be pretty and isolated, but we’re much better of here. Even though I’m still isolated,” she added with a scowl, I refrained from saying something about wrinkles, and waved goodbye as I set off for work.

I walked into my room, got [dressed](http://www.polyvore.com/tutu/set?id=43684453), and left base for work. After an hour and a half of hardcore jamming to Green Day and The Foo Fighters, I parked my car and went into the shop.

“Look who’s here!” Shane said, attacking me with a bear hug. “It’s my favorite blonde bitch!”

“Suck my dick, Miller!”

“Why so formal with the last name?” [Shane](https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSU6faONJeId9EE9DlW-qU6BlaMX4k6jh6P3nABdzqw7_AEOjwinQ) asked me, letting me go.

“No reason,” I shrugged and walked over to the main desk to get shit ready for the day. “I just like your last name.”

“Weirdo.” He laughed and threw a wadded up piece of paper towel at me, which I caught and threw away.

“Suck my dick.”

“Suck mine first.”

“You wish, fuck face.”

“Fuck your face? Okay.”

“You’re an ass, I’m about to smack you.”

“Smack your ass? Little bit of an odd request but I’ll- OW!” He was cut off by Kendal smacking him upside the head.

“Stop tormenting Slayer. Poor kid gets enough shit from douchebag clientele,” she said, walking over to me and patting me on the shoulder.

“Thanks Ken,” I said as I went over and set up her station. The rest of my work day went pretty much the same. I drew up some sketches of the bots, dealt with some skank ass bitch bag, and fucked with Shane. It was a little past closing time when I gathered my shit and told Kendal I was leaving.

I went to a Starbucks and got B and I both coffee and drove back to base.

I walked through base, greeting everyone as I looked for Blake. I saw her sitting down looking like she was trying to figure out the secrets of the universe or some shit.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked.

She jumped and the desk lit up blue, all of the electronics that were scattered around on it transformed and started shooting at us.

“Shit! Run!” Blake said, pushing past me.

“God damn it!” I dropped the coffee and ran like Hell.

“LENNOX!”

“EPPS!”

“KAT!”

“MIKE!”

“ANY BOT WITH A HOLOFORM!” We were screaming for anyone who could take care of them when something occurred to me.

“Blake why didn’t you just fry them?” I asked.

“Cause they’re the first ones I’ve made,” she answered.

I resisted the urge to say something about her being a mother and followed her towards the med bay.


	3. Freedom and the Volt

## 

  
“FUCK YEAH!” I cheered, driving at highly illegal speeds away from the base. Two more months of practice and I was finally in control of my All Spark energy. I could mask it with no problem, and my ratio of made to fried drones had decreased dramatically.

After nonstop bitching, Ratchet had declared me free to leave base. I had a curfew that no doubt would be completely ignored, but it was a start.

I decided my first stop was gonna be to visit Slater. I pulled up in front of Ink Splat and walked in. A guy there walked over to me. “Can I help you?” he asked. I could tell by the way he looked at me that he thought I was just some Hollywood ditz.

I put on my Paris Hilton voice. “Uh yeah, I was wondering if, ya know I could get “fuck bitches get money tattooed across my ass.”

“Are you serious?”

“Totally.”

“I don’t know-“

“You are such a sucker,” Kendall said.

He looked relieved. “Anyways, what do you really want?”

“To talk to Slater.”

“You Blake?”

‘ _That’s right they haven’t met me yet._ ’

“Yeah.”

“Figure the clothes and all. Slater says you’re a fashionista. She also says you have red hair.”

I shrugged. “Been too lazy to dye it.”

“DUDE YOU’RE FREE!” Slater screamed upon seeing me.

“Finally the Hatchet let me out.”

“Awesome, so you’re fully in control.”

“Yupp!”

“You going shopping?”

I just gave her an ‘ _are you kidding me?_ ’ look.

“Slayer, we don’t have all that many appointments for today. You can go with her, if you want, since she was just freed from whatever.”

“NO!” Slater screamed, ducking behind the counter. “Last time I went shopping with her, I nearly died.”

“That was because you did not listen to me, when I said to stay out of my way.”

“I was out of your way!” she protested.

“You were in my car. You were in my way.”

“I was nearly suffocated under all of her shit!”

“Which is why you’re not coming with me. I haven’t been hopping in months, so I’m gonna buy anything and everything I want.”

“Christ. She’s gonna have a fucking clothes-gasm.”

“Fuck off.”

“Make me.”

“Blow me.”

“Much rather not catch one of your skank ass diseases.”

“No diseases here, but honestly I really don’t want your dumpster diseases.”

“You fuck around with all this toxic shit, when you work on all your fucking projects and shit.”

“Dumpsters are fucking disgusting,” I said.

“Isn’t your credit card burning a hole in your pocket? Go fucking buy some shit.”

“It is, and my foot is just itching for that damn gas pedal. Bye guys.” I waved to Kendal and Shane. “See ya later bitch,” I said to Slater.

“See ya whore.”

I flipped her off and got back in my Nissan and was off. I parked in the garage of the first (and largest) of the three branch hotels we had in Vegas. It was actually the one that my family lived in.

Using my key, which allowed me access to all the floors, I took the elevator up to my parents’ penthouse.

“MOM! DAD!” I screamed. I walked into the kitchen and pulled a Fiji water out of the fridge and an apple off of the counter.

I walked back the hall towards my dad’s office. I knocked on the door. I walked in and he was sitting in his chair sleeping with his head on the desk. I nudged him. He woke up with a start.

“You okay?” I asked, taking a bite out of my apple.

“Blake, when did you get here?” he asked me.

“About four minutes ago,” I said. I took another bite of my apple. “Why are you sleeping in your office? All nighter?”

“Have you been declared safe from whatever it is that was after you?” my dad asked.

“Daddy, nothing is after me. It’s just precaution and no, not yet. I’m still under protection. I’m just allowed to go out and about now.”

“I still don’t understand why we’re not allowed to know what’s going on. We’re your parents.”

“And I am legally an adult, who cares more about keep you safe through ignorance rather than putting you at risk, just to appease your irritation at your ignorance.”

“Why’d I raise such a smart girl?”

“So that when you die, I can take this over,” I answered.

“Are you gonna get your degree?” he asked me.

I rolled my eyes. “In due time. Actually, where I’m staying I can get it way way faster.” I had thought many times about just hacking into a college main frame. I had already gotten my degree once, and it was not fun. I could just speed up the process a little. “So are you gonna tell me why you passed out in here or am I gonna have to do some investigating?”

“I started working last night and just fell asleep. Your mother and I got into a little bit of a fight.”

“Over?”

“You.”

“Me? What about me?”

“She thinks that you’re trying to separate yourself from us.”

“I honestly had to fight pretty much everyone tooth and nail to be here today, especially without a fucking guard. Although, I’m pretty sure the only reason they want me to have a guard is because a quite a few of them want to leave.”

“She’s just having a little bit of separation anxiety,” he said.

“Honestly, I am with the greatest group of people ever. Plus it’s not like I’m alone with a bunch of strangers. I got Slate with me.”

“I tried saying that.”

“You think she’ll chill out, if I arrange a dinner with some of the guys?”

“Possibly, but it’s your mother. I’m more likely to predict, who is gonna win the lottery than her reaction.”

“Well, I’ll see what I can do. They’re very busy.”

“So where are you going after here?” my dad asked.

“Shopping, shopping, shopping then more shopping. Then I’m getting my hair and nails done. I’m going home after that though.”

“Your mother is in Aspen. She left this morning with Barbra.”

“Oh fucking joy.”

“Well, I’ll find a date. Then you can make reservations.”

“I haven’t been shopping in months. Months.”

He shook his head. “My little Testa, you’re gonna shop me into bankruptcy.”

“Will not.”

“Be careful. Last time you wrecked.”

“That was because of the other asshole, not me.”

“Just go shop and don’t over-do it,” he said in a warning tone.

“Moi?” I asked with exaggerated shock. “Over do it? Why I would never!”

“Get out of here, Rossa.”

“Bye Daddy.”

“See ya kid.”

~*|-|*~

Juicy Couture, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Betsy Johnson, Tiffany’s, Marc Jacobs, a new [hair cut](http://fashplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Hayden-Panettiere-bob-Hairs.jpg), a fresh dye job and twenty-seven thousand dollars. I had over done it. I knew it, but considering that I had been on shopping trips, where I’d spent five times that, I highly doubted my father would care. The Nissan was crammed with bags. I made sure that no one was really paying attention, when I turned on to the road that led to base.

The base was still in Nevada. In fact it was in the one, the only, area 51. Slater and I had tried to snoop around, but because of the fact I was being watched by fucking Cybertronians, I didn’t get fucking anywhere. When I got to base, I parked in the hangar, where we kept the alternative modes for the bots. I was excited, because since I got to go car shopping for the new bots’ altmodes. Hello Stingray Corvette.

I put my bags on my arms, barely fitting them all. (I refused to make another trip.) I walked through the residential quarters to my room. Most of the soldiers were still wary of me, so I gave them my trademark bitchy indifference, while saying hi to those I didn’t find fucking annoying.

“Red! You’re red again!”

“Wow, Mike! I bet it was your observational skills that go you so far in life!” I quipped. I opened the door to my room and dropped all my stuff and [changed](http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=49303768).

I was gonna go find Ratchet and start lobbying for more freedom. Translation: I wanted to move back into my house. I loved being around the bots and the soldiers, but I missed my California king.

Just as I was about to enter the medbay, the damn alarm rang throughout base.

“OH COME ON FOR FUCKS SAKES!” I screeched.

“Oh quit being such a fucking drama queen, and let’s go see what’s going on,” Slater said, coming up behind me.

“Where the fuck where you?”

“With Jazz.”

She and I walked to the control room. It was one of my favorite rooms on base. Why? Teletraan 1. I had begun working with the human tech team and Ratchet the instant that we had gotten to base. Ratchet and I had pretty much taken charge. He’d done the most to his abilities, and after that, I was in complete control. He had patients to attend to after all.

Along the edge of Teletraan 1 was a deck for the human tech team. Maggie and Glenn had been my biggest help, but there came a point, where only my obnoxious knowledge of Teletraan 1 allowed anyone to do anything, and I don’t work well with others, so until Wheeljack arrived, we were at sort of a standstill. That didn’t mean Teletraan wasn’t awesome though. I mean he might have had just the tiniest amount of All Spark energy in him. As I said, I could only make drones. This one was just big and not fucking crazy.

“We’ve got incoming arrivals, the computer says friendly,” one man said to Lennox. I took my seat on the deck at the main human control.

“Do we know who?” Optimus asked.

“We haven’t had contact and the computer doesn’t say,” the soldier said.

I rolled my eyes. “Teletraan!” I called. Everyone human and bot alike looked at me. I continued. “Identify incoming Autobot arrivals,” I commanded.

“Identifying, “ Teletraan responded. There was a pause for a moment, before Teletraan began to spit out what I needed. “Incoming Autobot arrival: designation Jolt. Incoming Autobot arrival: designation Arcee. Incoming Autobot arrival: designation Chromia. Incoming Autobot arrival: designation Flare-up. “

“Teletraan, where is their projected landing location and ETA?“

“Projected landing location for Acree, Chromia and Flare-up: 38.4542° N, 110.2089° W. ETA: Twelve hours, thity-two minutes and fourteen seconds.”

One of the techs searched the coordinates. “Horse Shoe Canyon, Utah.”

“Projected landing location for Jolt: 40.7997° N, 113.8000° W. ETA: Nineteen hours, twelve minutes and thirty-seven seconds.”

“Bonneville Salt Flats,” the tech spoke again.

“It is good to hear that our comrades shall be arriving soon,” Optimus said.

“Teletraan, have you found any sign of Decepticon activity?”

“No sign of Decepticon activity.”

“Thank you Teletraan. Update us when new information becomes available.”

“Request acknowledged.”

I spun around in my chair and faced the masses. “I bet someone’s happy to hear that a certain trigger happy femme is arriving to Earth.” I smirked at Ironhide.

“I will blast you to pieces femme,” he threatened.

I ignored him. “And now Ratchet has someone to boss around, who actually knows what the fuck he’s doing.”

“It will be nice to have some competent help.”

“So what’s your plan, Prime?” I asked.

“We will split into two teams,” Optimus said.

“Lennox, you are to choose the men, who you feel are best fit to accompany my autobots to each landing zone. “Ironhide, you and I will go to where the femmes are landing.”

“Ratchet and Jazz, you will go to Jolt’s landing location.”

“Boss Bot, don’t ya think someone should stay back just in case?” Jazz said.

“Jazz, you are right. You shall stay back and guard base.”

“Got it, Boss Bot.”

“I wanna go,” I whined.

“No.” Hide and Ratchet said.

“I think the femme should go,” Jazz spoke. “She knows the most bout us, an’ she has the resources to get ya out of a sticky situation, if the humans come round.”

“She’s the All Spark. What if there are decepticons and they sense her?” Ratchet asked.

“Ratchet, run your most detailed and advanced scan on me,” I said. “Teletraan, what is the risk of Decepticon activity at the landing sites?”

“Minimal,” Teletraan answered. I felt Ratchet’s scanners on me, and he harrumphed, when he found he could not find any trace of the All Spark energy.

“I didn’t get to see you land, because I was get lost as fuck.”

“I see no harm in the femme going along. Ratchet, she’ll go along with you,” Optimus said.

“I’ll drive the Volt,” I said, running off.


	4. Shoot

  
  
“ _Midnight rush, with a pen in my hand  
Dinkin Lincoln, sand-script with a fan  
Remembering me, before we began  
Sometimes I felt so Def in the Jam_  
  
“Oh my god! Do we have to listen to this shit?” Epps bitched from his spot in the passenger’s side. He’d just finished his shift, and now, I was back behind the wheel of the Volt. We were almost there.  
  
“You should savor this. She will go completely bat shit crazy and turn into this weird ass thing in about two months,” I told him.  
  
“ _But the ones who loved me, told me to stop  
Like home girl can't catch shit if it drops  
A superwoman chick, you know that I am  
Some shit don’t fly by me in a man_” I sang along relatively quietly.  
  
I got more into it at the bridge.  
  
“ _Cuz I do not accept any less  
Than someone just as real, as fabulous_”  
  
“You’re good, B,” Epps said.  
  
I just kept going.  
  
“ _Don’t want no paper gangsta  
Won’t sign away my life to  
Someone who’s got the flavor  
But don’t have no follow through  
Don’t want no paper gangsta  
Won’t sign no monkey papers  
I don’t do funny business  
Not interested in fakers  
Don’t want no paper gangsta  
Oo ohhhh  
Don’t want no paper gangsta  
Oo ohhh_  
  
“ _Got something really shiny to start  
Want me to sign there on your range rover heart?  
I’ve heard it before  
Yeah, the dinners were nice  
Till your diamond words melted into some ice_  
  
“ _You should been rapping to the beat of my song Mr. California,  
Paper gangsta and I’m lookin’ for love, not an  
Empty page full of stuff that means nothing but  
‘You’ve been played’_  
  
“ _Cuz I do not accept any less  
Than someone just as real, as fabulous_  
  
“ _Don’t want no paper gangsta  
Won’t sign away my life to  
Someone who’s got the flavor  
But don’t have no follow through  
Don’t want no paper gangsta  
Won’t sign no monkey papers  
I don’t do funny business  
Not interested in fakers  
Don’t want no paper gangsta  
Oo ohhhh  
Don’t want no paper gangsta  
Oo ohhh_  
  
“ _don’t want no paper gangsta_  
Won’t sign away my life to  
Someone whose got the flavor  
But don’t have no follow through  
Don’t want no paper gangsta  
Won’t sign no monkey papers  
I don’t do funny business  
Not interested in fakers  
Don’t want no paper gangsta  
Oo ohhhh  
Don’t want no paper gangsta  
Oo ohhh”  
  
“Where’d you learn to sing like that?” he asked me.  
  
“I’m gifted as a mother fucker,” I responded.  
  
“Seriously, I’m surprised you haven’t recorded a demo or anything and tried to get signed.”  
  
“I’m an heiress, who is gonna run a giant ass chain of hotels, not a singer. That’s an old dream.”  
  
“It’s a good dream. You have the talent and getting studio time would be no issue.”  
  
“It’s a dead dream, now let it go,” I snarled my grip on the steering wheel tightening.  
  
“Chill out.”  
  
“Didn’t you just drive for six straight hours? Don’t you want to take a nap or some shit. We’re gonna be a few more hours.”  
  
I had driven the first six hours. Bobby got the second. The last four hours were mine. Ratchet had gone ahead and so had Kat and the rest of the team. Our asses got left behind.  
  
“Why didn’t you go to see the girls land?” Bobby asked me. “I’m sure if you had asked, Prime would’ve agreed.”  
  
“Not gonna intrude on a moment,” I said.  
  
“What do you know?” he asked me.  
  
“Chromia and Ironhide are sparkbonded, which is like being married in Cybertronian terms. It’s different though. Cybertronians’ connections are way more emotional than anything else, since their metal bodies have very little give, and physical contact is difficult for them.”  
  
“You really do know everything.”  
  
“Since, their bonded, Ironhide knew Chromia was coming, he just didn’t say anything.”  
  
“And how do you know that?”  
  
“Because, unless they cut off the bond, which is very unlikely, they felt each other. They can feel what the other is feeling, how far away they are, and they can talk to each other through it. So can twins. Very rarely, when a spark is to go into a frame and a Cybertronian is to be born, the spark will split, creating two. These two are twins and being that they’re half of the same spark, they have all of the same properties as spark mates.”  
  
“The Autobots have any twins?” Epps asked.  
  
“Two sets. Mudflap and Skidz, who are the two dumbest non Decepticons that you will ever encounter. Oh my god. They caused a whole bunch of controversy, because they’re pretty much a racist stereotype for black people. They do nothing other than fight over who is the smarter, but they’re sparks are in the right place and when needed, they can be capable warriors.”  
  
“Do we have the alt modes for them yet?”  
  
“They’re gonna have to be a crappy ice cream truck at first. We can get their final alt modes soon enough, but they’ll be two little Chevys, a beat and a trax.”  
  
“And the other set?”  
  
“My favorites. You cannot tell them though. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. They are two of the most arrogant mother fuckers, but they can back it up. Sideswipe is the nicer of the two, and typically, thought of as younger one. He’s not the biggest fan of the human race, but isn’t a massive prick about it. Sunstreaker on the other hand is a complete and total asshole. He has sociopathic tendencies. He hates Earth. He hates everything about it other than sunsets, but that last part is just a theory.”  
  
“Sunsets?”  
  
“He’s a painter. Everyone thinks he likes to paint sunsets, but who knows. They’re pranksters, so if they both look too happy stay away. Their favorite targets are Ratchet, Hide, Prowl and Red Alert. Whatever you do, do not touch Sunstreaker. He hates organic everything. If his paint gets messed up, he will flip out.”  
  
“It’s that serious?”  
  
“There’s only one person I can think to compare Sunstreaker to, when it came to vanity, me,” I said honestly. “He prides himself on being the best Cybertron has to offer, the best fighter, the best looking, the fastest.”  
  
“Of course he’d be your favorite,” Epps said.  
  
“Not he. They. You can’t really have either without the other. Distance messes with their psych, and if one were to die, the pain of losing him would cause the other to completely lose it and offline themselves.”  
  
“That’s intense,” he said. “To kill yourself, because your twin died.”  
  
“It’s not like losing a twin to them. It’s not like losing a separate being. It’s losing a part of themselves.”  
  
“What else do you know?”  
  
I launched into my obnoxious knowledge of the fandom. Some things I glanced over, like Beast Wars. That was a very dark time for most Transfans. I could’ve gone on for even longer, but when we saw Ratchet and the team, I stopped.  
  
“Gonna have to tell me more of this sometime. It actually sounds like it was a cool cartoon.”  
  
“Bobby, it would’ve been your shit.” I got out of the Volt and walked over to Ratchet. “Are you excited?” I asked.  
  
“It will be useful to have another set of servos in the medbay.”  
  
I knew that was as close to a yes as I was gonna get from him. We stood in silence for a few moments, before Jolt streaked across the sky. “Amazing,” I said. He landed and with the clicks and whirls only a Cybertronian could produce, he unfolded until he stood tall in his protoform. “This is so fucking cool.” I was fangirling a little bit internally, just a little bit.  
  
“Jolt, my apprentice, it is good to see you’ve fared well in your travels.”  
  
“It is good to see you as well.”  
  
“I will introduce you to the humans here with us, but first your alt mode,” Ratchet said. “Blake, explain.”  
  
“It’s a Chevy Volt. Works, since you’ll have a fondness for nature. It’s eco-friendly, and since it’s electric, it’ll really be good with your electrowhips. It’s electric blue, because I guess you’d like it more than silver or red. Maybe it’s just the irony,” I said.  
  
“Blake has somehow managed to travel from another dimension, where our existence and war is a very popular toy, cartoon, comic book and film franchise. She knows everything about us, and although, it can be annoying, it is also very helpful,” Ratchet explained.  
  
“I hear you’re a snob, so either we’re gonna get along just fine, because I am a snob as well, or you’re gonna piss me off, and I’ll rip your fucking cables out,” I said cheerily.  
  
“Ignore her. She doesn’t have the means, nor the knowle-“  
  
“At the wrists, behind the knee, at the elbow joint and near the spinal strut. That’s, where your main energon lines are. On the back of your helm there’s a port that can out you into stasis.”  
  
“I may not have the means, but I do have the knowledge. Do not underestimate me, especially since I’ve been working on some shit.”  
  
Jolt scanned the volt and transformed, before transforming back to his bipedal mode. “We should go now, before Decepticons detects us. Once we’re at base we will discuss a more sensitive subject.”  
  
“So who’s driving cause I’m sleeping?” I asked.  
  
“If it is alright with her, I want to ask her about this planet and her knowledge of us.”  
  
“Better she rides with you than me,” Ratchet said, transforming. “Epps you are in need of recharge and aren’t in condition to drive. The other two will take your and Blake’s place in driving the Volt back to base.  
  
Jolt transformed and opened the door. I got in and sat down. “I’ll answer your questions about Earth no problem, anything about what I know you’ll only get if you answer a question of mine.”  
  
“That is fair Blake.”  
  
“Then shoot.”


	5. We Missed It?

  
  
Instead of training like we were supposed to be doing, Jazz was watching me paint a big ass picture of Reptar (from the _Rugrats_ ) beating the shit out of Godzilla. Right as I went to touch up some of the green areas, Jazz knocked the paint cup over and it went everywhere.  
  
“Dammit, Jazz! THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS!” I screeched.  
  
“Why you gotta be like that? It’s just paint! Wipe that shit up and get over it,” he said, rolling his optics at my dramatics.  
  
“Get over it? Okay. I’ll paint something else,” I said, giving the bot a mischievous smirk.  
  
“See? Shit ain’t that hard, girl!” he said, ignoring my expression.  
  
“You know what else isn’t hard?” I asked, picking up a bottle of paint.  
  
“LIQUID!” I yelled, squirting his feet with neon green paint.  
  
“Da fuck you think you doin’ ya crazy ass bitch?!”  
  
I smirked. “Getting over the past and painting something else. Like you said!” I laughed and squirted him with more paint.  
  
“Look lil’ bitch, I’ma fuck yo’ ass up in a second!” Jazz said, trying to swat me, and my paint, away from him.  
  
“Bring it, big bitch!” I laughed, splattering more paint on him.  
  
In the midst of our little argument, the base’s alarm went off. I left Jazz alone to clean up my mess and went to see what was going on. I figured he would catch up eventually.  
  
I was looking for Blake when I heard her scream. “OH COME ON FOR FUCKS SAKES!” I walked up to her and rolled my eyes. “Oh quit being such a fucking drama queen, and let’s go see what’s going on,” I said.  
  
“Where the fuck where you?” she asked, ignoring my comment.  
  
“With Jazz,” I said, smirking about the events that had just occurred.  
  
We walked into the control room, and I walked over to Lennox and one of the guys, who works the control panel and whatnot.  
  
“We’ve got incoming arrivals, the computer says friendly,” the soldier said.  
  
“Do we know who?” Optimus asked him.  
  
“We haven’t had contact, and the computer doesn’t say.” The soldier replied. Blake rolled her eyes and called for Teletraan, causing everyone to turn and look at her. She proceeded to talk to Teletraan about the incoming bots, and I stopped listening to think of jabs I could throw at Ironhide. Blake beat me to it. “I bet someone’s happy to hear that a certain trigger happy femme is arriving to Earth.”  
  
Hide glared at her.  
  
Everyone decided who they were going with after Optimus assigned destinations. Blake rode with Epps, I rode with Lennox.  
  


*|-|*~

  
  
“Could your singing get any worse?” Lennox complained. After avout six hours straight, he was sick of hearing my horrendous singing.  
  
“Yes, but I’m afraid Ironhide would kill me. I don’t wanna die yet. I never got to go to Warped Tour,” I said, smirking.  
  
“Warped what?” Lennox asked, looking confused.  
  
“Tour. It’s a big ass music festival. Basically all of my favorite bands get together and go on a huge ass tour. It was scheduled for like a week after the crazy time travel fuckery happened with Blake and I,” I explained.  
  
“Oh…”  
  
“Yeaaah.”  
  
“Will you two just shut up already?” Hide said through his radio.  
  
“No,” Lennox and I both said at the same time.  
  
Hide grumbled, and I looked at Lennox. “Follow my lead,” I mouthed. He nodded.  
  
“HIDE AND CHROMIA, PARKED BY A TREE” I started.  
  
“B-O-N-D-I-N-G!” Lennox added.  
  
“FIRST COMES……………INTERFACING……?” Lennox suggested.  
  
“NO, THAT’S SUPPOSED TO COME AFTER MARRIAGE!” I protested.  
  
“THEY DON’T EVEN GET MARRIED! Do they….?” he asked.  
  
“Fuck if I know.” I shrugged. “…… MOVING ON. SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME THE WORLD WAS GONNA ROLL ME”  
  
“I AIN’T THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHEEEEEEEEEED.”  
  
“SHE WAS LOOKING KIND OF DUMB WITH HER FINGER AND HER THUMB IN THE SHAPE OF AN ‘L’ ON HER FOREHEAD!”  
  
“Will you two SHUT UP?” Hide screamed.  
  
“I WILL NOT BE SILENCED!”  
  
“Sorry, Hide. Slater here is a little sleep deprived…. Maybe I should drive the rest of the way?”  
  
“YES!” Hide and I agreed with Lennox. We switched seats and after singing along to a few random songs, I fell asleep. Lennox woke me up a few hours later. “We’re here, kid,” he said, shaking my shoulder. I stretched and got out of Hide.  
  
“Horse shoe canyon, Utah,” I said, stating the location, yet sort of asking a question.  
  
“Yeah, why?” Hide asked, Transforming behind us.  
  
“I don’t know. Just seems like one of those places I would never bother to go to….” I said, trailing off and looking up toward the sky.  
  
“How long until landing?” Lennox asked.  
  
“I’d say about negative three seconds,” I said, pointing to where Hide had gone off to. He was already with Chromia.  
  
“We missed it?”  
  
“Yup,” I said, walking over to where the fembots were waiting.  
  
“Hello Arcee, Flare-up, I’m Slater. This is Lennox,” I said, introducing myself and Lennox to the bots.  
  
“Major Lennox,” He added on, nodding at the bots.  
  
“I’m Arcee, that’s Flare-up, and the one being all lovey with Ironhide is Chromia,” Arcee said.  
  
“So… You two any good at breakdancing?” I asked, with an awkward smile on my face.  
  
“Break…..dancing?” Arcee asked, while Flare-up smiled at me. “Sure. Allow me to show you how it’s done,” she said, busting a move. Arcee followed her lead, and Lennox and I tried to follow suit. Needless to say, we failed. The bots transformed, and we went our separate ways; Hide with Chromia, Lennox with Flare-up, and me with Arcee.  
  
“Thanks for the ride,” I said to Arcee, as we sped down the highway.  
  
“No problem. We figured giving you two rides would be the least we could do after dancing your afts off,” she said, laughing.  
  
“Well that wasn’t the last you’ll ever see of DJ Skippy Slate.”  
  
“Sadly.”  
  
“RUDE.”  
  
“If you say so, DJ Skippy Slate.”  
  
“I do say so MC Arcee Ace!”  
  
“Never call me that again. We will never speak of this again,” she said.  
  
“Well, I have to tell Blake. So how about we just never talk to each other about it?” I suggested.  
  
“Agreed.”


	6. Teletraan 2

## 

  
“Fuck you!”

“Suck my dick!”

“You don’t fucking have one!”

“Shut the fuck up and make me a sandwich!”

“Make your own sandwich you twat!”

“Cunt!”

“Bitch!”

“Slut!”

“Is that supposed to be some new fucking piece of information? Cause it’s not.”

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What the hell are you two going on about?” Lennox asked, coming between Slater and me.

“Bitch is giving me shit about my shoes, when she has nine million fucking hats!” I screamed.

“At least I wear all of my hats.”

“I wear all of my shoes.”

“ONCE!

“And how many times do you wear each hat?”

“More than you wear each pair of shoes.”

“GIRLS!” Lennox shouted.

We looked at him.

“Are you two really fighting over this?”

“Yes!” we shouted.

“Jesus Christ,” Lennox muttered.

“Blake-” Lennox looked at me. “-Go to the command center.”

“Slater, go do whatever it is you do,” he said to her.

“Is this your version of sending us to our rooms?” Slater asked.

“No, because I could actually do that.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I would love to see you try,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Blake-“

“Fuck you. If you need me, I’ll be in the command center,” I said. As I walked, I noticed a few sets of eyes wandering towards me. “Take a picture. It’ll last longer,” I sneered. When I made it to the command center, I sat at my chair in front of Teletraan. Jolt, Ratchet and Ironhide, were standing at the Autobot screen staring at something.

Rather than bug them (and possibly get blown to pieces or a wrench lobbed at me), I had Teletraan start running through every database that it could find, searching for any more information on Cybertronian research and tech throughout the world. While that went on, I started playing Galaga.

“Shit! Shit! Shit! Fuck! God damn it!” I swore as more missiles dropped down on my ship.

“Will you be quiet over there?” Ratchet barked at me.

The slight break in my concentration caused me to lose my last life.

I turned and glared at the medic. He was already focused back on the screen. I got up and walked over to where the bots, where watching. “What the hell are you looking at?” I asked.

“Go away,” Hide said.

“We will inform you, when we tell the others,” Ratchet added.

I went and sat down in my seat at Teletraan. “Teletraan stream what they’re seeing to my tablet,” I instructed. The images came on to my tablet, and I watched carefully. From the looks of it, it was intel and possible communication fragments on a bot, although I could not read what. “Translate that,” I said. The text went from Cybertronian to English. I calmly got up and left the command center. Once I was out and clear of anybots, I ran as fast as my heels would take me. I went into my room and grabbed a bunch of stuff and threw it into my bag. I went searching for Slater. She was using her mini-bot to tattoo a mellon.

“Bitch, drop the melon. We’re going on a field trip,” I said to her. She gave me a look before shrugging and standing up. She threw some stuff into a bag and cleaned up, before her little bot crawled onto her shoulder.

“Where are you going?” Ratchet asked as we walked past him in the hall way.

“I have no fucking clue,” Slater answered, looking at me skeptically.

“I need to swap my clothes.”

“Why the hell do I have to go?” Slater whined.

“Because I don’t get rid of shit unless you’re there to throw it away, when I’m not paying attention.”

“Bitch, I sell it,” she said.

“YOU WHAT?!” I bellowed.

“Fine. Leave, but be back soon,” he said.

We walked out to my Nissan. “So why are we really here?” she asked, once we entered the house.

“The bots are hiding something. I’m just trying to figure out what it is.”

“They’re gonna kick your ass. You know that right?”

“No. I’m more likely to get a wrench lodged in my face or blasted to hell and back by Hide,” I responded.

I kicked off my heels and trotted over to the boxes of my computer stuff. I dug around and began to carry the boxes I needed to my room. When I was down there, I hooked everything up and grabbed my phone. I called an acquaintance of mine.

After I hung up, I got up and changed.

When I went back upstairs, Slater gave me a look.

“Really?” she asked.

“What?”

“ _Really?_ ”

“I need the tech.”

“You can get it from N.E.S.T.”

“That would involve clearance and me fessing up to what I’m doing.”

“Whatever. When you get a plasma cap busted in your ass, don’t come crying to me.”

“That’s not gonna happen. Have some faith.”

The GTR was too flashy for where I was heading, so I drove into Vegas and swapped for my Mitsubishi Evo. It wasn’t flashy like the GTR or the Bugatti, but I loved that car. It was fun, and I could drive it anywhere. It was low key, so I kept one on base and one at the resort.

On the outskirts of Vegas was a storage facility. It looked like shit and honestly, if I could get away with it, I’d burn the fucking thing to the ground, and if I was really lucky, the idiot, who ran it would be inside.

There was a lock on the fence, so I climbed over. Two German shepherds approached me, when I landed on the other side. Their ears flattened against their head, the hair on the back of their neck stood up, and their teeth were bared as low growls ripped through their throats.

“SUBMITTO,” I ordered. They instantly calmed. I headed towards the main building. It stunk so bad that I nearly threw up. Instead of continuing forward, I stopped and decided yelling was the better option.

“Oh Melee!” I screamed in a sing song voice, “Get the fuck out here, before I come in there and kick your ass.”

See the guy who owned the place was a super geek extraordinaire, who went by the name of Melee, because his name was Rick Mae. Yes, he was that much of a tool. In my dimension he was the best tech in the country. In this one he was known for having cybertronian tech that he someow managed to get from Mission City.

The door cracked open. “Listen, you prick, you’re gonna get your ass out here and help me. Then I’m gonna leave you the fuck alone. Got it? Good. Now get the hell out here.”

“God, I love it, when you swear,” he said. He was also a megacreep.

“Ugh, don’t jizz your pants,” I said, looking at him in disgust.

“How can I help you today, Babe`?”

“One, don’t call me ‘babe.’ You do it again, and I use my new connections and have you disappear. Second, I need quite a bit of tech from you today.”

“What for?” he asked.

“That’s for me to know and for you to never ask about again.”

“You’ve changed.”

“Yes I have. Now-“

“What connections?”

“Connections you don’t need to know about.”

“I need to know what I’m working with. Blake you’re one of my best customers, but I can’t have you ruining business, if you’re working with the government.”

“You’re of no concern to me or my people.”

“How about this? If you tel-“

I lost my cool a bit. He’d come out to me, so there was really no hope for him to get away. I grabbed his greasy, stained shirt with my left hand holding him, so that I could punch him with the right. “You’re gonna give me what I want and you’re not going to ask questions. Am I understood?”

“Yes,” he choked out.

“Good.” I smiled and released him. I prattled off what I needed and followed him inside, ignoring the stench as best as I cold. He gathered everything up and loaded it into the Evo.

“Good. I’ll take out all of your streaming and tracking devices out, when I get home.”

“How did you-“

“Do you really think you can hide things from me?” I asked sweetly. I then gave him an evil smirk. “Now you know. Try again, and I rip your balls off.”

“I liked you so much better, when you were just a normal customer. Then again this hard ass you is even fucking hotter.”

“HIT ON ME AGAIN AND I SNAP YOUR NECK!”

“I love you!” he screamed as I left.

“Go fuck yourself!” I replied.

“Only when I’m thinking of you!”

I barely heard his response, but I did and, I had to try really hard not to turn around and run his ass over.

When I got back to the house, I dragged my stuff down the stairs. As I was hooking everything up, Slater came down and flopped on my bed. “What the fuck are you doing?” she asked.

“Hooking everything up and getting rid of Melee’s stupid ass software.”

“So I have an idea,” Slater said.

“Elaborate.”

“What if I tattoo the N.E.S.T. symbol on anyone who wants it in N.E.S.T?”

“I want one,” I answered easily, “-But you gotta see if they’ll let you, being as we’re top secret and all. What the fuck are you? Do you even get one? I mean I’m the All Spark, and on top of that, I’m a NEST tech op. What the hell are you?”

“I’m your handler.”

“Bull fucking shit!”

She laughed. “I knew that’d piss you off.”

“Oh fuck you!” I snapped. When I hooked up the last cable, I powered everything up, smirking as it came to life. (Again there might’ve been a bit of All Spark energy involved.) I grabbed the multiple external hard drives that I brought from my purse and hooked them up. Once they all downloaded, which was fast because of the Cybertronian software I began to work. “Introducing Teletraan 2!” I said proudly.

I hooked up my phone and transferred the stream to my screens. “Teletraan copy and translate everything that’s being streamed. Also make sure my firewall is up and running. Block everything that can get into this, especially anything you can track back to a Rick Mae.”

We waited for a moment. Everything began to change from Cybertronian to English. I read over it with Slater reading over my shoulder.

I played the short clip that had been received. Teletraan cleared it up. The yellow paint and fins on both sides of the mech’s face made it obvious who it was.

“Oh my god!” I gasped.

Cybertronian. Explosions. Fuzz.

“Is that-“

“Sunstreaker.” I slammed my hand down on the desk. “Those fucking Decepticon bastards?”

We had no clue what type of condition Sunstreaker was in or Sideswipe. We needed one of them to check the stability of the bond. If it was messed up one or both of them could be in extreme pain.


	7. Boys Will Be Boys, Bot or Not

  
  
“Blake!” Lennox called me. I looked up from the note book that I was scribbling a list of parts I needed in.  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“We’ve got incoming bots,” he said.  
  
“Sweet.” I rose from my chair and walked with him to the command center.  
  
In my usual fashion, I strutted to my seat in front of Teletraan. I flopped in my chair and crossed my legs, spinning slightly.  
  
“Teletraan, who are the incoming bots, what are their approximate landing locations, and what are their ETAs?” I asked.  
  
“Incoming Autobot, designation: Mud Flap. ETA: Three days, twenty-six hours, forty-two minutes, and thirty-four seconds. Approximate landing location: Chibi, Xianning, Hubei, China.”  
  
You could hear the gears begin to grind in the bots.  
  
“Ugh! Why?” I groaned.  
  
“Incoming Autobot, designation: Skidz. ETA: Three days, twenty-six hours, forty-two minutes, and thirty-four seconds. Approximate landing location: Chibi, Xianning, Hubei, China.”  
  
“Can’t we like tell them that they got the wrong planet or something?” I asked.  
  
“Don’t you think you’re being a little harsh?” Epps asked.  
  
“No,” Ratchet said.  
  
“If Prime hadn’t said that we couldn’t, we would’ve terminated those glitches long ago,” Hide said.  
  
I could hear the whirling of his cannons.  
  
“They’re not bad like border line con or anything,” I said, seeing the worry on the faces of the soldiers around me. “They’re just fucking stupid, obnoxious, pervy, and I swear if they fuck any of the shit I’ve been working on up, I’m dismantling them.”  
  
“I’ll help,” Ratchet offered.  
  
“Ratchet, Blake,” Prime said in a warning tone. “Teletraan, continue.”  
  
“Incoming autobot, designation: Sideswipe. ETA: Two days, seventeen hours, twelve minutes and twenty-four seconds. Approximate landing location: Nuremburg Germany.”  
  
The soldiers waited for the bots and I to say something, but not a word was said.  
  
There was only one of them. That coupled along with the transmission from Sunstreaker was troubling.  
  
Who knew what kind of condition Sideswipe would be in? He could’ve been terribly wounded. Then there was the bond and his psychological state. For all the more we knew he could’ve been a completely and total wreck.  
  
Optimus finally broke the silence and got the attention of everyone.  
  
“Lennox, we must send out two teams. I believe that to China we send Jolt, and the Arcee triplets, and a human team of your choosing. I shall go to Germany myself along with Ratchet and a team of your choosing. I also wish for Blake to accompany us.”  
  
Lennox looked at me, before nodding at Prime. They contacted Morshower, and we were cleared. “Blake, I would like to speak to you,” Optimus said.  
  
I nodded. He set his servo down. I stepped on and held one of his digits for support. This was gonna suck.  
  
Rather than go to his office, he went outside, to a dune that I usually sat on, when the organized chaos of base was too much for me.  
  
“Blake, I have a favor to ask of you, but I fear it will be too much.”  
  
“Does it have to do with Sideswipe?” I asked.  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Whatever it is, I’ll do it.”  
  
“Your willingness to help others is admirable,” he said.  
  
I didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure that I deserved the compliment.  
  
“Are you aware of Sideswipe’s current condition?” he asked me.  
  
“Do you mean medically, psychologically or the separated from his twin part? Because, if you wanna talk about the twin thing, you should just go for it.”  
  
He cycled his vents. “That is what I’m concerned about.”  
  
“I don’t really know. I know they’re separated. He came to Earth in the movies without Sunstreaker. He seemed fine, a little bit more shallow than in previous incarnations, but it was never mentioned that he had a twin. He wasn’t a main character though. The focus wasn’t on him.”  
  
“So you have no clue about Sunstreaker’s whereabouts?”  
  
“None aside from what you’ve been trying to keep a secret,” I answered.  
  
“How did you-“  
  
“I made Teletraan.”  
  
Another cycling of vents.  
  
“I believe that he is in decepticon captivity.”  
  
“Shit,” I swore.  
  
“We do not have the means to rescue him as of now.”  
  
I could hear the sadness in Optimus’ words. He had lost so many soldiers, family members and friends in this war, and he couldn’t even save one without risking the lives of others. He couldn’t do anything in this situation.  
  
I sympathized with the autobot commander. Knowing that there was nothing you could do was a terrible feeling. It only amplified the other negative feelings, the anger, the sadness, the guilt.  
  
“Blake, it is a lot to ask of you, I know, but I would like you to help Sideswipe, when he comes to Earth. It is unfortunate that you are able to sympathize with Sideswipe, but you can, and you know of him well enough to be able to connect with him like the rest of us cannot.”  
  
“I already told you I’d do it.”  
  
“Thank you, and if you would, please do no-“  
  
“If we tell him, he’ll snap. He’ll go after than cons on his own. I’m not risking his life like that.”  
  
“I agree.”  
  


~*|-|*~

  
  
As the result of a “gas leak” the city of Nuremburg has been shut down and evacuated. We’d gotten there early cleared out the city, and now we were waiting. We had been waiting for hours and there was still time left until we even met Teletraan’s ETA.  
  
I was bored. At one point I had entertained myself by driving through the city like a mad man, but ceased, when Ratchet’s bitching became too much for me.  
  
So once again, I was driving around slowly bored out of my fucking mind. Killing time was not my forte, well not in a car. Normally I would paint my nails or work on one of my many projects. Instead I was listening to _Wires… and the Concept of Breathing_.  
  
“ _Won't you scream my name?_  
For the first time (For the first time)  
For the last time (For the last time)  
  
As I lay down my life before you  
The hiding place where I sought out your eyes  
Screaming outwards to shoot me back in time  
You sent me out in the right field  
Spilled my words and disguise  
We're starting a rise  
Now it's so true I can't go on without you by my side  
Every night we die”  
  
I failed to pay attention to my surroundings, so when a fireball crashed into the ground about sixty feet to my right and two hundred feet ahead, it scared the hell out of me.  
  
I moved so that I was with the rest of the team. We gathered in a semi circle around the crashed landed bot.  
  
The bot unfolded and rose to his full protoformed height.  
  
After he got his balance, Prime addressed him.  
  
“Sideswipe, my young friend, welcome to planet Earth.”  
  
“Hello Prime,” Sideswipe greeted.  
  
“Sideswipe,” Ratchet greeted curtly.  
  
“How are you already pissed off?” I asked, looking up at the medic.  
  
“You are the most annoying fleshling, I’ve ever had the displeasure of interacting with,” he told me.  
  
“Fuck off Doc Bot.”  
  
“Blake Renee,” Lennox scolded.  
  
“Ooooo middle name. I’m so scared.”  
  
“I’ve had it with your attitude,” a random soldier snapped.  
  
“So? What are you gonna do? Shoot me? Go ahead and do it. I fucking dare you.”  
  
Lennox face palmed.  
  
I was a little nervous, because of what Prime had asked of me. I was still totally on board, but I was nervous as hell. I hadn’t slept well the night before. Part of it was the fear of nightmares and the rest was happ  
  
“Hatchet, if you’re gonna scan me at least get me an energon cube first,” Sideswipe chirped.  
  
“I see you haven’t changed,” Ratchet replied.  
  
“Not one bit.”  
  
“Too bad,” Ratchet muttered.  
  
“We’ve allied ourselves, with the planet’s human population,” Opimus explained.  
  
“Organics,” Sides sneered.  
  
“Captain Lennox is the human commander, and this is a portion of his team.” Prime went on to introduce the team that was currently present.  
  
Then he came to me. “This is Blake. She is a human ally of ours. She is also very important to our cause.”  
  
“I’m also a grade A bitch,” I tagged on. “And this-” I said, pointing to the Vette. “-is your alt mode. Not Cybertronian, but it’s a pretty bad aft car.”  
  
“Blake is here to help you adjust to the human world. I assume you got the data packet I sent you?”  
  
“Yes, sir,” Sides answered.  
  
“As much as I hate to be a pain in the ass (or maybe not), we can’t keep the city evacuated forever. We need to start moving. The sooner we leave, the less of a stir we’ll cause.”  
  
Lennox nodded his head in agreement. “I’m with Blake. The sooner we’re out of here the better.”  
  
“I agree that we should leave,” Optimus said. “Autobots, transform and roll out.”  
  
“Alright let’s move out!” Lennox called.  
  
Sides scanned the vette and transformed before following Prime. I got in the vette and sped after them.  
  


~*|-|*~

  
  
“BITCH!” Slater yelled at me, riding over to me on her skateboard.  
  
“SLUT!” I yelled back. I stood just off to the side enough so that I was out of the way if she fell.  
  
“I thought you were going to Germany. What took so fucking long?” she asked.  
  
“It was hard to get this slag heap through customs.” I jerked my thumb back towards Sides.  
  
“I heard that squishy,” the bot replied, rolling up to me.  
  
Sideswipe was exactly like I’d imagined. The design of his frame was amazing, and he knew it. He was arrogant, calm and a bit of an asshole.  
  
He was a lot more adaptable and accepting than I thought he would be.  
  
I figured it’d take a hell of a lot more for him to even talk to a human, but he had conversed with us like it was no big deal. His earlier disgust towards humans made it even more surprising. He was still a jack ass, but it wasn’t anything that I couldn’t deal with.  
  
“Well I could’ve called you a cunt.”  
  
“Which is?”  
  
“A fleshy reproductive part,” I answered.  
  
“Ugh, you’re gonna make me empty my tanks.”  
  
“So that’s what they call it,” Slater chimed.  
  
I punched her in the arm.  
  
“Call what?” Sides asked.  
  
“Never mind,” she said.  
  
“Well, that’s Slater,” I said, “She’s my best friend, and she’ll fuck your paint up in a second, if you piss her off. I wouldn’t fuck with her.”  
  
“Damn straight,” Slater said with a nod.  
  
The sound of an engine pulled me from the conversation. After a second I determined it was Bee. He black and yellow mech came flying through the hangar. He transformed and tackled Sides. I ran over and out of the way of their wrestling match.  
  
Jazz followed soon after with Sam and Mikaela in tow.  
  
I looked at the two bots, who were wrestling.  
  
“Boys will be boys, bot or not,” I said walking off.


	8. Stuff

  
  
“What are you doing?” I asked Sideswipe. His servo was resting above his park casing twitching every few seconds, and his facial plates held an annoyed and slightly pain expression.  
  
“Nothing,” he responded.  
  
“Nothing my ass. What’s wrong?” I pressed.  
  
“Nothing!” he barked, getting up and wheeling himself out of the rec room.  
  
I rolled my eyes at the bot. This wasn’t the first time I’d caught him like this, and I had a pretty good idea of what was going on. I sighed. He needed to see Ratchet, and I was going to have to be the bitch that made it happen.  
  
I walked into the Medbay, where Rathet was reading over a data pad. Skidz and Mudflap were in stasis on one berth with arms that had obviously just been reattached.  
  
“Mission or Hide?” I asked.  
  
“Bumblebee,” Ratchet answered, not looking up from the data pad. I snickered.  
  
“I assume that you are not here to see those idiots though.”  
  
“No. I wish it was that simple. It’s about Sideswipe.”  
  
“What did he do? I swear, if he maaged to-“  
  
“He didn’t do anything. It’s his spark.”  
  
Ratchet stopped ranting and set a servo down for me to climb on. He then placed me on his desk. “What about his spark?”  
  
“I’m not one hundred percent sure, but he’s been clutching at it, and it’s obvious that he’s in pain. I think it’s Sunstreaker. I think whatever’s being done, whether or not to him or the bond itself is slipping across to Sideswipe.”  
  
“Are you sure?” he asked.  
  
“I can’t be, but you should check out anyways. Any type of medical issue could become a major problem later on.”  
  
“I will call him here immediately. I would leave, if I was you. He’s not going to be very pleasant.”  
  
“Mildly put,” I said.  
  
“Yes, mildly,” Ratchet agreed. He set me down, and I left for my room. I walked in and flopped on my bed. I hadn’t even realized that I was tired until I was drifting off.  
  


~*|-|*~

  
  
_”So do you two like feel anything from the other? Like do you feel pain, when he gets hurt?”  
  
I just gaped at the stupidity radiating off of the girl in front of me.  
  
Casey and I had been lobbed together with the daughter of one of my father’s associates.  
  
I swear I was losing brain cells by just listening to her. Slater had lucked out. She hadn’t been forced to endure this moron, since she and her family were in Nashville for the time being.  
  
“We’re twins, not brain sharers,” I said. “We’re not even identical.”  
  
“I was just curious. No need to be so rude,” Casey scolded.  
  
I could never figure out where his never ended stream of patience came from. It was something that neither me nor my dad, and my mother was only patient on the outside.  
  
I huffed and sat back down in my seat.  
  
“I was thinking about it too the other day.”  
  
I raised an eyebrow. “You were?”  
  
He nodded. “Yeah. Like if I pinched you, would you respond in a way that would allow me to feel it?”  
  
“Yes, because I’d punch you in the face,” I responded.  
  
He rolled his eyes. “Not what I meant.”  
  
“That’s what it sounded like to me.”  
  
“You’re annoying,” he said.  
  
“She’s annoying,” I pointed to the girl sitting across from me.  
  
“What have I told you about being rude?”  
  
“That woul- OW!”I yelled, feeling Casey pinch my arm. I reached over and smacked his. “Ignorant ass!”  
  
“Maybe that’s where the idea came from,” he suggested with a chuckle.  
  
I pouted.  
  
“Don’t be like that. You’re still my favorite sister,” he said, hugging me.  
  
“I’m your only sister!”I replied.  
  
“If I had more, you’d still be the favorite.”  
  
I looked across the table. “Are twins really fascinating still?”_   
  


~*|-|*~

  
  
_Christmas was one of my favorite holidays. The DeVille and Hunt clans both relocated to upstate New York during the winter, so that we could have an actual fucking winter. Vegas was nice, but we liked the idea of a white Christmas, not sand.  
  
I hadn’t been home for Christmas the previous year, so the time between my last visit to our New York home and this one was a whole year longer. Not much had changed. My room was still done up in silver and white, giving it the appearance of an ice palace. It still reeked of gingerbread and those scented pine cones, and it was still annoyingly early in the morning, when I woke up. The difference was that I had awakened on my own accord. I hadn’t been dragged out my bed by the hyperactive boy that occupied the room across from mine. No one was going on about having picked the best present. Cookies weren’t being shoved down my throat, while a phone to call Slater was thrust into my hand. It was quiet. It was eerily quiet. I was used to the hum of the city outside of my windows in Vegas. Here there was nothing. It was too fucking cold, too fucking isolated and there was entirely too much fucking snow.  
  
I got up and went to the bathroom, pulling myself together somewhat before walking downstairs. The massive tree that stood in the living room had tons of presents piled underneath them.  
  
I smirked. Some were wrapped perfectly, obviously the work of my mother. Others were lucky that the paper was still holding on. Slater’s mother and sister had their wrapped at the stores they purchased them from. The generic colors and gold stickers, naming the store gave them away. Slater’s were wrapped in white and decorated by her hand. Each box had been colored, painted or drawn on. They almost made you feel bad, when you ripped them open. Then there were mine. I hated wrapping, so everything was bagged to perfection. Tissue paper and ribbons flowed from the openings in waterfalls of green, silver, white, gold and red.  
  
“Good morning Ms. Blake.”  
  
I turned and saw Teresa, our favorite house keeper standing behind me with a tray of cookies and coffee in her hands.  
  
“Morning,” I greeted tiredly.  
  
Teresa went everywhere with us. She was practically family. She knew us better than we knew ourselves and had perfect timing.  
  
“Cookie, dear?” she asked. “I know it’s hard, but maybe it will help you get in the spirit. Would you like me to go wake your parents?”  
  
I nodded and grabbed one.  
  
“Give me a moment.” She disappeared up the stairs.  
  
I sat in the middle of everything and started sorting the presents into piles.  
  
“Mine… Slater… Bitch… Daddy… Bitch the sequel… Husband of Bitch… Mom… Bitch… Bitch… Who the fuck bought this mother fucker so much shit? Mine… Slater… Slater… Mine…” I kept going. By the time I was done, the door bell was being rung and my parents were coming down the stairs.  
  
“We have arrived! Let the Christmas festivities commence!”  
  
I rolled my eyes at Slater.  
  
We all settled in the living room in our pajamas ad started ripping into out piles. My mother and I had the smallest, but that how we liked it, because that usually met jewelry.  
  
When we were done, we were surrounded by our gifts, individual islands in a sea of wrapping paper.  
  
I glanced at the pile of presents that were still sitting under the tree. There was one from each of us. The sight made teas spring to my eyes. The from on the tags differed, but they were all for the same person, the only one missing from our current debacle, Casey._   
  


~*|-|*~

  
  
I was sitting on top of a sand dune staring up at the sky. I was close enough to base to be able to run back in case of emergency, but a enough away that unless someone desperately needed me, they weren't gonna come looking for me.  
  
It was cold. There was nothing in the desert to hold the heat. I’d been out there for hours, and really had no intentions of going back soon. I had awakened from my slumber with a familiar pain gnawing at me.  
  
There was nothing I could do to make it go away, just try to ignore it until a decent distraction presented itself.  
  
My quiet evening was disrupted however. The sound of a bot making its approach cut through the quiet air.  
  
"How you squishies can find some kind of enjoyment in this gritty slag is beyond my processor," Sideswipe said.  
  
I cracked a slight grin. "No one really likes sand, especially desert sand. It just gets in everything."  
  
He grunted, before lapsing into silence.  
  
When he finally spoke, he was serious. "Do you know where he's at?"  
  
"No," I answered honestly.  
  
"How did you know about the bond? I mean I never said-"  
  
"It was a theory. Back in my dimension or whatever. When the second movie came out and he wasn't in it, we made up our own theories. The one that stuck the most was that the cons fucked with your bond, making it painful or even impossible to use. We never agreed on where Sunstreaker was."  
  
Sides flinched, when I said Streaker's name.  
  
"What were your theories?"  
  
"Generally we-"  
  
"No _your_ theories."  
  
I sighed. It was a fine line. I didn’t want to lie. I wanted to help him, but I couldn’t Sides, wasn’t the kind, who could get information and just sit on her. He had to act, to move. There was no way that he wouldn’t go after the cons in hopes of finding Sunstreaker.  
  
I had to present what I knew in the right way. “I don’t really know. He could be with a different set of bots, healing, fighting.”  
  
“Or?”  
  
“Or a con prisoner or he could simply be lost. Space is difficult to navigate. I can’t be sure. However I can be sure that he's alive and trying to get to you."  
  
"I feel so fragging useless! He's out there and there's nothing I can do."  
  
"You can kick con ass, so that this war can be over, and he can kick your aft in peace."  
  
"He doesn't kick my aft."  
  
The comment did what I wanted it to.  
  
"Not what I hear."  
  
He let out a low growl.  
  
I smirked, but still had this dark nagging feeling eating at me. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. I was jealous. I wished I could've had his optimism, then again I might've only been more disappointed. Fuck.  
  
"What's on your processor?" he asked.  
  
"Just stuff. Thanks for the ask, even though I know you don't care."  
  
"Stuff?"  
  
"Stuff."  
  
"Any certain kind?"  
  
"Stuff I don't want to think nor talk about."  
  
"I see." He stood and picked me up, catching me off guard.  
  
"Whoa! What the fuck are you doing?"  
  
" _We're_ going for a drive."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Cause I owe you, and I don't like owing anyone anything, especially squishies."  
  
"Hunk of junk."  
  
"Worm."  
  
"Scrap metal."  
  
"Fluid bag."  
  
"Please. You can do better than that you over grown beater ride."  
  
"A what?"  
  
"Look it up."  
  
"You'll pay for that one squishy," he said, transforming with me in his hand, throwing me into the passenger's seat and speeding off down the road that led to the outside world.  
  
Of course he had to go at breakneck speeds.  
  
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” I screamed, before bursting into a fit of giggles.  
  
Luckily I was a seed demon, so the ride simply made me giddy.  
  
“What’s so funny Squishy?” Sides asked.  
  
He slowed down to a still extremely fast speed.  
  
“Not funny, just fun,” I said.  
  
“What?”  
  
“I don’t get to just go fast. I have to take my Bugatti out on a track, and you don’t get the same sense of speed riding on a train or in a jet. It’s not fun.”  
  
“I know what you mean,” he said.  
  
“That’s cause you’re a speed demon.”  
  
“Comes with being the fastest.”  
  
“Except for Blurr,” I said, earning a jolt of the seat.  
  
“Ow,” I muttered, pulling at the seat belt. “Dick!” I yelled, smacking his steering wheel.  
  
“Blurr doesn’t count.”  
  
“Yes, he does.”  
  
“Well I’m far less annoying than Blurr.”  
  
“I thought that was Bluestreak?” I questioned.  
  
“Both are annoying. Bluestreak never shuts the frag up, and you can’t understand a thing that Blurr says.”  
  
I chuckled. “You’re so kind.”  
  
“Because you have room to talk,” Sides scoffed.  
  
“Hey. I’ve always been the mean one. That’s my thing.”  
  
“The mean one.”  
  
“The mean one, the nice one, and the weird one.”  
  
“Slater is the..?”  
  
“Weird.”  
  
“And the nice?” he asked.  
  
I hadn’t even noticed I’d mentioned it. “Casey.”  
  
“Casey?”  
  
“It’s a taboo to mention around base. No one’s sure how I’ll react. Shit. I’mt not even sure. Sometimes, it’s okay. Other times it’s terrible.”  
  
He didn’t say anything.  
  
“Do you why Prime picked me to help you?” I asked.  
  
“He told me it was because he wanted me to guard the All Spark.”  
  
“Of course he did,” I mumbled.  
  
“It was because he’s worried about you,” I told him. We all are. When we saw that you were landing by yourself, we all feared for your well being.”  
  
“I’m-“  
  
“You’re not fine. Now, shut up.”  
  
He silenced himself.  
  
“He picked me, because I can relate to you, not on a super close level. The difference between Cybertronians and humans comes into play, but we have some similarities. We like the color red. We like to go fast, and we’re both one half of a set of twins.”  
  
“You have a twin?” he asked.  
  
“Had. Mine died.  
  
“His name was Casey, and he and I were a set of perfect dovetails. Every shitty thing about me was perfect in him. I’m a bitch. He was kind, compassionate and caring. I’m selfish. He was always looking out for everyone else. He was my best friend. He was the best brother. He made me smile, called me out on my shit anf was willing to go to war with anyone, who tried to fuck with me. He was like a fucking ray of sunshine, you couldn’t help, but be happy around him. He’s the reason I dye my hair red. I lost a bet and had to dye my entire head.”  
  


~*|-|*~

  
  
_”She’s going to kill me. My life is over. I’m getting cut off,” I said towel drying my now red hair.  
  
“I think it looks good.”  
  
“Of course it looks good. Everything looks good on me, except for poverty, which I will be living in soon enough.”  
  
Casey rolled his eyes. “Quit being so dramatic. You dyed your hair red. So what? The worst she will do is ground you.”  
  
“You suck.”  
  
He pulled another glove out of the drawer and poured the little remaining red dye into his hand. He ran it up the front of his blonde hair effectively creating a red patch. “Better?” he asked.  
  
“Oh yeah,” I said with a laugh. I could hear my mother. She’d be more upset with his patch than my head. At least my hair was uniform and made a little sense.  
  
“We can be poor together,” he said.  
  
“Fine, but I get the New York Times. You get to sleep on the Post or something,” I said.  
  
He shook his head. “Fine.”  
  
I helped him fix the patch a little, and we sat there until it was time to rinse. Once we’d both dried and fixed our hair, we went downstairs.  
  
My mother had been in the kitchen, getting herself bowl of ice cream. She turned, saw us and dropped the bowl where she was standing. It landed on the floor with a clank, the spoon clattering a few inches away.  
  
“Five…” Casey started counting so low that only I could hear.  
  
“Four…  
  
“Three…  
  
“Two…  
  
“One.”  
  
We sprinted to my father’s office.  
  
“I told you this was a terrible idea,” I said.  
  
“This was an amazing idea,” he replied, cackling.  
  
I rolled my eyes.  
  
“YOU TWO ARE SO GROUNDED!” my mother bellowed.  
  
“Told you,” he said with a smirk._   
  


~*|-|*~

  
  
“God, we were stupid,” I said.  
  
“When we were fourteen, we went to Jamaica. My family and Slater’s. Well apparently there was sort of a plot. Kidnap the rich girl and hold her for ransom. They wanted me, and possibly Slater or her sister, but they rarely left their suite. They-“ I stopped, swallowing the lump that had begun to form in my throat. “They got him. For two weeks we waited around, hoping, praying, and then they returned him, cold and lifeless.”  
  
“Squi- Blake-“  
  
“Now listen.” My voice had become sharp. “There’s a reason that Optimus picked me to be your fucking human tour guide. That right there. That’s it. I lost my twin, but yours is still fucking out there. You may not know where he is, what condition he’s in, but you know he’s there, somewhere. I know where Casey is, six feet under the fucking ground in Nevada. That’s no damn consolation. I’d trade to be in your spot in a minute, so you’re gonna trust me when I say he’s coming back, because I’m making sure there will be no other ending.”  
  
He said nothing continued to drive until we were back at base. I got out, and he transformed. I started to head towards my room, but Sides picked me up, so that I was looking him eye to optic. “Blake, I am sorry for your loss. I am sorry for what this must be doing to you.”  
  
I was shocked. There were some things I never ever expected to hear from Sideswipe and that was one of them.  
  
“You maybe a fleshling, but no fleshling deserves to go through that. It wasn’t your fault,” he said.  
  
“How’d you even know I blame myself?”  
  
“Because I would if it were Sunny,” he said.  
  
“You do blame yourself for Sunny,” I concluded. “He’s always the one trying to protect you Sides. It’s part of who he is. You did nothing to put him in any situation for this to happen. He did it to himself, because he loves you. You’re his brother, his twin, the other half of his spark. You are honestly the only thing other than himself that he loves, aside from maybe his wax. You can’t blame yourself for that.”  
  
He vented, his gears whirling before setting me down.  
  
“Thank you,” he said, before wheeling off. I headed to my room. I flopped down on my bed and tried to suppress all of the old pain I had brought up, but failed. I eventually gave in an allowed myself to cry it out.


	9. Dreams, Memories and Nightmares

  
  
I was tired. I was ridiculously fucking tired. Exhausted, I was exhausted.  
  
Sleeping through the night was fucking impossible. Every night I had either a memory play itself back as a dream or a nightmare, always involving Casey. Some were a combination of the two. Each time I would wake up and find myself unable to go back to sleep.  
  
I tried to continue on like I was fine, after all a few nightmares were nothing to get anyone else worked up about.  
  
The thing was for as much of a bitch as I was to begin with. I was a good twenty times worse, when sleep deprived.  
  
“BLAKE!” Ratchet bellowed, storming into the command center.  
  
I turned in my chair to glare at the mech. The normally yellow bot was now purple.  
  
I should’ve laughed. It was actually hilarious looking back on it. I simply couldn’t must up a fuck to give though at the time.  
  
“Wasn’t me,” I said flatly.  
  
“Really?” he asked. “Why did I find you’re DNA in it?”  
  
“Because someone put a fucking strand of my hair in it!? Because I’m all over this fucking base, and my essence is everywhere?! I don’t know! Just fuck off! I can’t deal with this shit today.”  
  
I got up to leave, but was pushed down back in my chair by Slater.  
  
“What-“  
  
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she asked.  
  
“Not a God damn thing.”  
  
“Bullshit!”  
  
“You’ve been a complete and total cunt for the past few weeks. All you’ve done is locked yourself in your room unless your needed, and when you do come out, you are just obnoxiously bitchy.”  
  
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at her.  
  
“You should’ve found that funny as hell, but instead you went straight to pissed off. What is your fucking problem?”  
  
I felt Ratchet’s scanners on me.  
“Oh really?!” I yelled at the medic.  
  
“You’re sleep deprived,” Ratchet said. “I should’ve noticed it earlier. Blake, you need to rest.”  
  
“I’m fine,” I said through my teeth.  
  
“You clearly-“  
  
“Let it go!” I snapped, releasing a blue wave. All of the small electronics in the room that didn’t even have a trace of All Spark Energy came to life. “FUCK!” I swore, storming out.  
  
Slater kept talking walking behind me, not once shutting the fuck up.  
  
I stopped and turned so that I was right in her face. “Leave me the fuck alone for five god damn minutes, before I really start to lose it,” I growled. There must’ve been something in my tone or maybe my eyes that showed how close I really was to the edge, because she backed off.  
  
I ventured away from base, until I was once again sitting up by myself, looking at the stars. My solitude was ended by the arrival of Sideswipe. Unlike the other times I felt the need to come and sit in the clod ass desert, I wasn’t dressed for it, so when the bitter chill began to set in, I felt it.  
  
I didn’t say anything, but Sides picked up on it, because he transformed down and opened his door.  
  
I picked myself up, dusted myself of and sat in the driver’s seat.  
  
“Why haven’t you been sleeping?” Sides asked me, getting straight to the point.  
  
“Memories, dreams, nightmares. All about Casey. They all wake me up in the middle of the night, and I can never go back to sleep afterwards.” I surprised myself with how easily the words flowed.  
  
“Good dreams?”  
  
I nodded. “But then I wake up, and he’s still gone.”  
  
“And the memories?”  
  
“Some are good. Some are not so much. Some are funny, but I can never stop thinking about the afterwards. If things had been different… If we had changed our plans, left later, earlier, if we walked out in a different order, if something then he could still be here. I could be gone. I could accept that. That-“  
  
“Shut up!” Sideswipe snapped.  
  
I glanced down at his dash.  
  
“Tell me, what would you say, if I ever told you how I wished that it was me instead of Sunny that was missing.”  
  
I stayed silent.  
  
“Well…”  
  
“I’d probably tell you that you’re stupid, that Sunstreaker would probably hit you for saying something like that, and there would probably be liberal useage of the word fuck.”  
  
“I may not have met Casey, and I’d doubt that he’s hit you, but I believe that he and Sunstreaker would have a similar reactions in this case.”  
  
I hated that he was right.  
  
“You keep clinging on to these memories and the guilt. You don’t allow yourself to grieve and move on.”  
  
“I had to see it!” I yelled. “It’s not something that a few tears and an he’s in a better place get you through!”  
  


~*|-|*~

  
  
_”Case’ll be home soon. Moping isn’t going to help anything,” my mother said looking at me. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to be positive or if she was in denial. I was going with the latter. My mother was never good with any serious emotions. “Go see Slater,” she said. The Hunts’ suite was across the hall from us._  
  
I sighed and got up, knowing she wouldn’t relent. I changed into real clothes for the first time in days and walked to the door. I made sure I had my key and pulled it open.  
  
Blood. That’s all I could make out at first, the puddle of red. Then as my eyes trailed forward, the pale flesh of an arm caught my attention. The scream that escaped me was enough was the half choked call of a banshee. I fell to my knees.  
  
“Blake!” my dad came running over. He looked down, and quickly pulled me up and over to the couch, before calling the police.  
  


~*|-|*~

  
  
“I found him, outside of our room, naked, in a pool of his own blood. They’d slit his throat. He was covered in bruises, cuts and fucking burns. Burns! Who the hell does that?”  
  
Tears slid down my face. I wiped at them, before they could hit any part of Sides’ interior.  
  
“I’m never gonna unsee that. It’s never gonna go away. When it first happened, for the first few months, I was bad. I was terrible. I didn’t eat. I didn’t sleep. I was catatonic. I didn’t do anything. I sat curled in a ball, crying occasionally. They were never sure if it was the grief or the sight that did it to me, as if the combination alone was too far of a stretch. They locked me up. Put me in a mental hospital, and it worked, sort of. I didn’t get better, but it was so easy to act as if nothing had happened. There were no traces of him of anyone. It was just blank, so I allowed my mind to follow, and once I pushed the memories back, ignored them it got easier to function. I could be a snobby bitch, and no one questioned it. They always call me shallow, and I am, because it fucking hurts to go any deeper.“  
  
A hand on my shoulder, caused me to jump. I looked to my right, and my eyes widened.  
  
“You got a holoform?” I asked, surprised.  
  
He didn’t say anything.  
  
“I switched focus from parties, cars and vacation homes to autobots, but then I heard you were landing, and it started to come back. I’ve been forcing myself not to push it all away this time. I want to deal with it. I just don’t know how. I want to see you and Sunstreaker reunited. I want that for you, so badly. You know have a bond, an actual thing that makes you closer than anyone. I can’t imagine losing that. I won’t let that happen.”  
  
“Thank you, and I want to help you. There’s nothing I can do to bring your brother back, but if you need anything, come to me,” he said.  
  
I nodded. We lapsed into silence. My tears stopped flowing and my breathing started to return to normal. That was the first time I had explained that to anyone.  
  
I took a moment to observe the holo next to me. He looked sad, but he wasn’t giving me pity, which was something I appreciated.  
  
He was tan with dark hair that had a silver patch in the front. His eyes were like those of all the bots, bright blue that nearly glowed. He appeared to be tall, and was most definitely built. He had an angular face with a strong jaw line. He wore a pair of dark wash jeans and a grey t-shirt that read “I don’t break the rules. I just bend them.” I’d put my fortune that it said “a lot” on the back.  
  
“What made you agree to a holoform?” I asked, breaking the silence.  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“Just there was a comic, and you were absolutely disgusted by the fact a decepticon pretender would disguise herself as a human, and I mean I know this is different, but I didn’t think you would agree to a holoform.”  
  
“It’s not the same,” he agreed. “Honestly Ratchet drugged me and installed it. You humans are very weird creatures,” he said, looking at his hands.  
  
“You have no idea,” I said.  
  
I yawned. “You need to recharge. Time to go back.”  
  
He started to drive back, but I fell asleep before we got there.


	10. We Have to Talk

Image

"OPTIMUS!" I yelled, walking into the control room.

I didn't get anything other than a few odd stares. "Do not look at me like that. I know they're back."

"Teletraan where's Prime?" I asked.

"Medbay."

"Thank you Teletraan." I started my walk towards the med bay. I had nothing to fear. Ratchet's wrath had no reason to be directed at me. I was eating, controlling my energy, and sleeping, save for the last few days.

It seemed that as long as I was either in or on Sides' altmode, or if he or his holoform was near, I could sleep soundly through the night. However with the recent con attack he'd been sent out and I was having issues again. I was tired, but still functioning.

We’d both gotten a lot of shit from the others, but everyone wised up quickly. (The All Spark power may have made an appearance. As did Sides’ blades.)

The con attack meant that it was time for me to tell Prime what he needed to know. I still wasn’t sure how much that was, what needed to happen and what didn’t. My main concerns were the matrix and the Fallen. There was still time before I had to open up the Sentinel issue.

I entered the room and heard Ratchet grumbling. He was currently working on Sides. I crawled up the ladder on the side of the berth and stood next to the mech's helm.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"It's nothing just a minor tweak and some dents I need to pound out."

‘Bull shit.’ "Ratch, what'd he do?"

"Disconnected an energon line and stressed a few joints. They will need time to repair the damaged metal, so he will be taken out of the field.

"WHAT?!" Sides yelled.

"Do not yell at me pit spawn. I am not the one who can't handle a drone."

I bit back a snicker.

"Hatchet," Sides snarled.

Ratchet pulled out a wrench and hit Sides of the head with it.

"Cool it," I warned Sides. "You're hurt enough as it is. The last thing you need is a wrench lodged in your plating."

"Traitor," he muttered.

"How so? I'm just trying to protect your paint job."

Ratchet made a noise of disgust. "Such vanity."

"Such grumpiness," I mocked.

"Blake," he started.

"Ratchet, how many times are we gonna go over this? Every knows I'm about as shallow as a kiddy pool. I just don't give a damn."

"You haven't been recharging properly," he noted.

“I’ve been trying. Unless you want to give me something to knock me out, it is what it is.”

“I was trying to avoid that.”

“Whatever. I’m not here for you. Where’s Optimus?”

“He left just before you got here.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course. Where was he going?”

“Meeting.”

“Damn it. I need to talk to him. Whatever. I’m going to go to Starbucks or something.”

I left the med bay and went to the hangar, where my cars were at. My spot was gradually growing. My Nissan had been accompanied by my Bugatti, and they had both been joined by my little Evo, which I loved in the name of keeping it low key.

I wasn’t feeling low key however, so the GTR won out. There was nothing exciting about my trip, which was fine with me. I wanted coffee not adventure.

I sat down and sipped my overly complicated beverage for a little while before Slater called.

"What?" I asked.

"So some stuff's going on down under," she said.

"Do I look like a gyno?" I asked.

"Ew. Not like that. Thanks for thinking I'm nasty though. I really appreciate it."

"Hey. I don't know who you do," I defended.

"Whatever. That's not what I meant. Something's going on down under."

"Under where?" I asked, lost and annoyed. I had no patience for silly games.

"Down under."

"Why can't you just te- Oh. I'm coming back," I said.

"There you go. I knew you'd get it eventually. You were living up to your natural hair color there for a minute."

"Shut up. I’m leaving Starbucks now."

When I arrived back on base, it was a flurry of activity. I headed to the command center. “Teletraan, what's going on?" I asked.

"The Decepticons have targeted an American base on Australian soil.”

"Of course they have," I muttered.

"Where's Prime?" I asked.

"He's preparing for dispatch. We're up in fifteen."

I nodded, and took off towards, the autobot hangar. Luckily I caught a ride on the way. "What do you know?" Sides asked.

"I can't tell you," I replied.

He grunted. I knew he didn't like it, but he understood it. Optimus was standing overseeing the operation.

"We were completely unaware of this attack," Optimus said.

"We need to have a talk," I told him.

"I believe we do."

"Bad things are coming, and I'm not sure how to prevent them.

"And why is that?" he asked.

"Because they won't stop until they find what they're looking for," I told him.

"And what are they looking for?"

"The shards."

"Shards?" Sides asked.

"There's only one."

"That's what you think."

"I see there is much to discuss, we will converse, when I return. What you disclose is at your discretion, but Blake-“

“I was trying to find you earlier, but I think now that I need to organize my thoughts. There are chains of events that I don’t know if we can prevent."

"I understand that, and I can see how the weight of those choices is affecting you. I must go, spend this time on base preparing for my return."

I nodded.

"Sideswipe?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Help the femme. She trusts you."

"Yes, sir."

Optimus transformed and rolled onto the plane that was going to carry him and some of the others to Australia.

~*|-|*~

“Is that really helping?” Slater asked, after I gave the punching bag in front of me a good right.

“You see any drone running around?” I asked.

“No.”

“Then it’s working.”

“You knew this was going to be difficult,” she said.

I sighed. “Yes. I knew it was going to be difficult. However knowing you’re about to get punched in the face doesn’t make it any less painful. Same rules apply here.”

“What are we going to tell them?” she asked, sitting down on the floor.

“Everything.”

“Everything?”

“We tell them everything Revenge of the Fallen to Dark of the Moon.”

“So what? We’re gonna retrieve the matrix, then go rescue Sentinel, destroy the pillars and then what, take the cons on as they show themselves?” she asked.

“Best case scenario.”

“And the worse?”

“Our attempts at the following means that we’re going to Chicago and Egypt.”

“Fuck,” she groaned.

“The cons are starting to search for the shards. We can’t let them bring Megatron back, so we have to at least try to change it.”

I had thought that keeping our mouths shut, until absolutely necessary, was our best bet. It ensured that we got what we needed, the pillars, Sentinel, the Matrix… I thought it was going to be one of those things, that completely unravels the future. I mean in legends those who can see the future rarely ever tell people what they saw.

Things changed though, and I realized that was complete and utter bullshit. We could get everything, just as long as the right choices were made. We just had to get Prime, Lennox and everyone else to see what we did.

“This is gonna be just fucking awesome,” she bitched.


	11. Stupid Panic

  
  
“Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!” I swore.  
  
Our meeting with Prime had gone wonderfully. It was decided that we would hide the shards, get the matrix and destroy the pillars before bringing back Sentinel.  
  
Sounds too good to be true? Yeah. It sucked a big bag of dicks.  
  
Optimus was having trouble accepting the whole Sentinel being fucking evil and the pillars meaning a potential end of the world thing.  
  
He was still being optimistic and hoped to both keep the pillars and online Sentinel, just keep them separate. Did I agree with Optimus? No. Did I think we were gonna go to Chicago? Yes. Did I admire Optimus for still having hope after everything he’d been through? Hell yes.  
  
However admiration wasn’t enough. We weren’t going to win a war with it, so despite it, I was trying to come up with a plan of my own. Surely Blake would have one eventually (at the moment she was a ball of rage), but it’d be fueled on emotion and probably stupid and dangerous. It was either that or there would be no specifics. It’d go like this.  
  
‘ _B, what are we gonna do?_ ’  
  
‘ _Get the matrix._ ’  
  
‘ _How?_ ’  
  
‘ _I’m working on it._ ’  
  
See? Not going very far.  
  
Our first plan was to keep Megatron dead, which Optimus agreed with fully. That meant the shard had to be moved to autobot protection. The government wasn’t exactly cool with that though. More likely than not it was going to become a mess of politics and paranoia.  
  
However we had more pressing matters to attend to, such as the red head, who was storming through base, the All Spark energy within her materializing as blue electricity around her.  
  
“THIS IS FUCKING HORSE SHIT!” Blake yelled. The lights were flickering, her hair and clothes were whipping around her and the energy surrounding her was crackling. Nothing had to come alive though, so she was at least trying to restrain herself.  
  
“BLAKE CALM DOWN!” I yelled.  
  
‘ _Why the fuck I am I always the one trying to fix her shit?_ ’ I thought.  
  
“What hell is going on?”Epps yelled, running up beside me.  
  
“Prime pissed her _the fuck_ off.”  
  
“BLAKE!” I yelled again.  
  
We reached the entrance to the rec room, where soldiers were lined up guns drawn.  
  
“Shoot me. I fucking dare you,” she threatened in a low voice.  
  
I face palmed. I was so tired of this shit. Even before this had become our reality it was a constant struggle. Someone pissed her off, she flipped shit, they threatened her (security, lawsuits, blah, blah, blah), she goaded them, and then I stepped in. All the fucking time. The only difference was that now I couldn’t go and just pull her away.  
  
“BLAKE! DAMN IT! LISTEN TO ME!” I screamed.  
  
“HOLD YOUR FIRE! HOLD YOUR FIRE!” Epps ordered the men.  
  
As if things couldn’t get more annoyingly heated, wheeled peds flew over head of the soldiers, before planting themselves on the ground in front of us. Sides crouched over Blake and drew his blades.  
  
By this point everyone on base had seen Sides, angry even to the point he became blind with rage. This however was something different. I couldn’t see his face, but the vibes rolling off of him were enough to make the hairs on my neck stand up.  
  
“Bring any harm to the femme and I will kill you.”  
  
He’d never sound so menacing, so serious. I had no doubt that his words were 100% true.  
  
I was thrown off for a moment, but then smirked. Blake’s hair was lying normally and the All Spark energy had returned within her.  
  
“Child, what the hell is there to smirk about?” Epps asked.  
  
“Enough!” Primed ordered. “Sideswipe, stand down.”  
  
Sides hesitated, but once he realized that there was no longer any danger her retracted his blades and stood up straight.  
  
“She’s right,” I said. “She maybe bipolar and dangerous, but she’s right.”  
  
Optimus looked down at me. “I understand your concerns, but I’m not-“  
  
“I understand where you’re coming from. Look at us. We know how everything is going to happen. We’re trying to find another way. No one gets that more than us. This is a full blown case of pick one. If you can’t see yourself not reviving him, then see yourself destroying that pillar or vice versa. The amount of power you obtain by having both of them is too much without giving something up in return.”  
  
Blake was still standing in front of Sides, who had his arms crossed over his chest an annoyed expression on his face.  
  
She still looked pissed, but I could see that she had gone from turning the machinery on base to mobile guillotines to simply to plotting what she thought our next move should be, which still could’ve involved mobile guillotines.  
  
Optimus’ moment of silent thought was disrupted by a pained cry coming from the silver twin.  
  
“Sides?!” Blake called worried.  
  
The aforementioned bot, clutched at his spark casing before, collapsing to his knees.  
  
The soldiers began to panic, stupid panic too. Were we being attacked? Was he dying? Did the cons take controlled of him?  
  
“RATCHET!” Blake screamed, running out of the way of the falling bot. “RATCHET!”  
  
I ran to her, grabbing her to keep her from running closer. She could do that once he was completely down.  
  
“Blake, what is it?” I asked, knowing that she had some type of answer. “It’s the bond,” she said. “It’s gotten worse.”  
  
Her concern confirmed my earlier thoughts though, the ones that had popped into my head, when she calmed down at the bot’s presence. There was something forming between those two, something more than a simple alliance, or even the emotional support that Optimus had been hoping to establish.


	12. Smother Hen

  
  
After a fit of All Spark power rage, cause by Optimus, whose faith in one bot was going to destroy one of America’s major fucking cities, I was still pissed off. I had tried to storm out, but my lack of control over the energy within me had set off alarms and gotten half of base aiming their weapons at me.  
  
Of course it wouldn’t have done anything, but get themselves killed, because Sideswipe showed up almost instantly and hovered protectively over me. After all, he was in charge of protecting the All Spark.  
  
Slater was talking to Prime, trying in a much calmer manner to explain where we were coming from.  
  
Optimus hadn’t responded and was obviously thinking over his words. I was thinking over our next move if he didn’t agree. We still hadn’t told him where the matrix was, so he couldn’t revive Sentinel at the moment unless he used as shard, which would start a shit storm that no one wanted to deal with. I was sure that he could find it himself, so as far as I was concerned we had to go after it.  
  
Prime’s thoughts were disrupted by Sideswipe’s cry of agony.  
  
“Sides?!” I yelled.  
  
He clutched at his spark casing, before falling to his knees.  
  
“RATCHET!” I yelled. I ran out of the way so that I wouldn’t be crushed by his frame. “RATCHET!” I yelled again. It was obviously something to do with the bond.  
  
Slater grabbed me, keeping me out of the way. “Blake, what is it?”  
  
“It’s the bond,” I answered. “It’s gotten worse.”  
  
He wasn’t going to like this. “SIDESWIPE CLOSE THE BOND!” I screamed.  
  
Nothing changed.  
  
“I KNOW YOU DON’T WANT TO BUT IF YOU DON’T CLOSE IT, IT CAN KILL YOU BOTH!”  
  
After a moment his frame relaxed some. Then his optics went offline and went into stasis.  
  
I let out a sigh of relief. Slater released her grip on me, allowing me to walk over to Sides. I put a hand on his face plates. “Should listen to me sooner idiot.”  
  
Ratchet rolled in, nearly running a few solider over in the process. He transformed and scanned Sideswipe.  
  
“I need to get him to the medbay for a more thorough examination, though it appears he is okay for now. Blake you were right in making him close the bond. We’ve been monitoring it, but it seems to have gotten worse.”  
  
I nodded.  
  
“Ironhide.”  
  
The weapons specialist grunted and helped Ratchet carry Sides to the medbay.  
  
“Go. I’m going to the house for a few days to get some things together,” Slater said. She was obviously plotting as well.  
  
I gave her a nod before stalking off after the mechs.  
  


~*|-|*~

  
  
“Blake…”  
  
I looked up at Ratchet from where I was working on my laptop, which was set to be Teletraan 4.  
  
Again it involved All Spark energy, which didn’t go undetected by the CMO.  
  
“I slipped,” I lied.  
  
He was about to say something, but there was a change in the rhythm of Sides’ vent cycles. We both stopped and looked at the silver mech.  
  
His optics onlined and his servos twitched. “We have to find him,” he said. He tried to sit up.  
  
“Sit the hell down! You’re systems haven’t fully rebooted,” I scolded.  
  
“Do you know where he is?” he asked me.  
  
“No,” I answered.  
  
“We-“  
  
“You need to listen to the girl and settle down, before I put you back in stasis,” Ratchet threatened.  
  
“The cons-“ Ignoring the protest of the other two in the room, he sat up. “We have to get-“  
  
“You damn near had a spark attack. You need to rest.”  
  
“They have him!” Sides yelled. “And they’re torturing him! I can’t- AGH!” One hand went back to his spark casing, while the other crashed down on the berth almost squishing me. Ratchet picked me up and set me on his shoulder.  
  
“You’re not gonna get anywhere like this,” I told him. “If you wanna go after Sunstreaker, you need to heal.”  
  
“You know where he is,” Sides accused.  
  
“No, I don’t.”  
  
“Just tell me!”  
  
His optics went white then started to tint pink.  
  
“Sideswipe.” Optimus put a servo on Sides’ shoulder strut. It was both a restraining and comforting motion.  
  
“Ratchet, please take Blake elsewhere. I would like to speak to Sideswipe alone for a moment.”  
  
Ratchet exited the Medbay and set me down before transforming and opening his door. I hopped in. “Where are we going?”  
  
“Mess Hall. It’s an appropriate time for you to have dinner, a real one, not the snacks that you’ve been bringing into the Medbay.”  
  
“Smother hen.”


	13. I Don't Like the Way the Male Squishies Are Looking At You

  
  
“ _You’ve reached Slater. I can’t come to the phone so leave a message and I’ll get back to you._ ”  
  
“ _Beeeeeep_ ”  
  
I hung up my phone and sighed. Whatever Slater was doing had her in her zone. I don’t know why Slater ever bothered having a phone. It wasn’t like she ever answered it.  
  
I looked at myself in the mirror, smirking at my reflection. “Damn, I look good,” I said.  
  
I threw a flannel on, [keeping it open](http://www.polyvore.com/untitled_630/set?id=128065388) and grabbed the bucket filled with the supplies I’d gathered from various closets around base.  
  
I left my room and went off in search of Sideswipe. We were gonna have a nice little chit chat about Sunstreaker. I was hoping that I could keep him calm by giving him a wash. It also might’ve been a chance for me to work on my tan.  
  
Walking through base, I earned quite a few stares.  
  
“God bless America!” one of the soldiers called as I walked by.  
  
“Child, where the hell are your clothes at?” Epps asked.  
  
“Blake Renee!” Lennox yelled.  
  
I rolled my eyes.  
  
“Yes father?” I asked.  
  
“What the hell is this?” he asked, gesturing to all of me.  
  
“I don’t know. I think I look pretty damn good,” I said.  
  
“She’s right there,” Epps chimed, looking me up and down.  
  
“Bobby!”Lennox scolded, smacking Epps upside the head.  
  
“I’m just sayin Baby Girl lookin right today.”  
  
“I look right every day.”  
  
“True.”  
  
“Alright. Epps, go to the command center. That’s an order. Blake, go put some clothes on.”  
  
Lennox shook his head and started walking away, muttering something about “God damned teenagers.”  
  
“Just wait until Annie hits puberty!” I called, after him, before continuing in my hunt.  
  
I finally found him in the hangar with the alt modes and my cars.  
  
“Sideswipe!” I called.  
  
“What?” he asked.  
  
“What do you think about me giving you a wash?” I asked.  
  
“Why? I’m not-“  
  
“I’ve given the other bots washes before and they find it enjoyable. Come on. It’s just a wash, and I’ll give you wax, and shine your tires and make you shine something fierce.”  
  
“Fine,” he relented.  
  
I smiled. “Transform down?”  
  
He did as I asked. I stuck the bucket in the passenger’s seat and climbed on his hood, laying back onhis wind shield.  
  
“What the frag are you doing? Do I look like a chair?”  
  
“No. You look like a bad ass corvette to me. Beautiful car, can’t help, but want to be all over it.”  
  
When you know you’re gonna piss someone off, start with flattery.  
  
Sides cycled his vents, but drove.  
  
“I don’t like the way that the male fleshies are looking at you,” Sides said as we moved across base.  
  
“Relax. It’s no big deal. When you look like I do, you’re bound to attract attention.”  
  
“Whatever,” he huffed, coming to a stop.  
  
I hopped out and grabbed the bucket setting it down and pulling the hose from the side of the building.  
  
I strung it out and filled the bucket. The water was running warm from the sun beating down on the hose.  
  
I filled the bucket, soaked the sponge and began to wash. Sides lowered on his axel, showing me that despite his earlier hesitation, he was relaxing.  
  
“Can I be next?”  
  
I glanced over my shoulder at the soldier, who said it. He was part of a group and they were all chuckling.  
  
“Not a chance,” I muttered.  
  
I heard Sides’ engine start.  
  
“Settle down,” I told him.  
  
I turned my attention back to the soldier. “Awww! It’s cute how optimistic you are to think I’d ever touch you. Unfortunately for you, cute doesn’t get very far with me. Now run along. I’m sure you have better things to do than window shop.”  
  
Sides rumbled with laughter beneath me.  
  
“Hot as hell, but cold as ice,” another one said.  
  
“Rejected!”  
  
They moved on laughing.  
  
“I _really_ do not like the way the male squishies look at you.”  
  
I laughed. “Doesn’t really matter if you like it.” I sighed. “There’s a lot of things you’re not gonna like.”  
  
“Blake-“  
  
“You think I don’t know how you feel?” I asked. “You don’t have shit to go on or else I would be all on board for staging a breakout and going after Sunstreaker, but you’d be going nowhere, get picked up by Prime and Hide then thrown in the fucking brig.”  
  
“What the fragging pit do you expect me to do? Sit here and be a good little autobot.”  
  
“You’ve never been a good little autobot.”  
  
“You’re missing the point.”  
  
“No. I’m calling you out. Listen. All you’ve got is that bond and as of right now, it’s out of commission, unless you want to kill both of you. Do you want that? No?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“Yeah. I thought so. However, I might be able to find something, but you’re not allowed to get pissed off at me, when I tell you and you have to do as I say and not tell anyone afterwards. Got it?” I asked.  
  
“Wh-“  
  
“Got it?”  
  
“Fine. I got it.”  
  
“Good, now swear it on your and Sunstreaker’s sparks.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“I want your word on your sparks,” I said. “Shouldn’t be a problem if you’re actually going to listen to me.”  
  
“Our word means more than-“  
  
“I know what it means. That’s why I want it. I am not fucking around here. Word or else I won’t tell you a fucking thing and leave it to Prime and the others”  
  
“Blake Renee DeVille, you have my word as an autobot that I will listen to and follow your direction or may bother Sunstreaker’s and my sparks be extinguished.”  
  
“Thank you. Now, before you got here, Lennox sent me to the command center to stop my arguing with Slater. While there, the bots were looking over something and of course I got curious. When they wouldn’t give me an answer, I stole it. It was a message from Sunstreaker.”  
  
“Why d-“  
  
“Calm.”  
  
Sides settled down.  
  
“Teletraan couldn’t translate it. Hopefully you can, so we have some indication of what was going on, and then if we’re really lucky, I’ll find some way to use it to get a lock on him.”  
  
“Why wouldn’t you tell me?”  
  
“Because I didn’t want to instill false hope. It’s one thing to assure you that he was alive. I knew that. You weren’t dead. He goes offline you will too. To tell you that we could find him without knowing, that’d be cruel.”  
  
“What changed?”  
  
“You’re gonna go anyways. I’m gonna try to keep you from getting offlined. I like you too much to let that happen.” I patted his hood. “Now let’s rinse you off, so that we can get a step closer to that wax.”


	14. Triangle

  
  
“This is where you live?” Sides asked. His holoform popped up next to me.  
  
“When I’m not restricted to base, it’s where I try to live.”  
  
He pulled in the driveway giving me a clear view of the garage. “Something’s wrong,” I said. “Slater has a Mustang and a Ferrari. Both are missing.”  
  
“And?”  
  
“Primus, this whole situation has you fucking stupid. She can’t drive two cars at once.”  
  
“Maybe she took one somewhere and is driving the other.”  
  
“She hates the Stang. Absolutely fucking hates it. I’m not quite sure why, but she refuses to drive it unless it’s absolutely necessary.”  
  
I got out of Sides and walked inside.  
  
“SLATER!” I yelled.  
  
Nothing, not that I expected a response, but still.  
  
I ran up the stairs to her room. Nothing was out of place.  
  
“Sides, take out anything that could be communicating with an outside source.”  
  
“Easy. Done.”  
  
“You sense anything?”  
  
“I’ve got my scanners running, but I’m not picking anything up.”  
  
I bit my lip. “Down stairs.”  
  
I led him to my room. I flopped into my chair and rolled to my desk. I pulled out my phone. I opened it and immediately it came to life. “T3, check T2 for any disturbances.”  
  
“T2? T3?”  
  
“Teletraan 2 and Teletraan3. My phone is Teletraan 4, and that tablet that Ratchet and I made is Teletraan 5.”  
  
“You’ve been busy.”  
  
“Had to do something, while you trained.”  
  
“I just assumed you shopped.”  
  
“Shopping is only so entertaining, when you’re doing it from behind a screen.”  
  
“One disturbance. Attempted hack from one Rick Mae.”  
  
“Fucking moron,” I mumbled. “How bad?”  
  
“The firewall had nearly been taken down.”  
  
“He’s not nearly smart enough for that!” I yelled. “Tell me everything about both the attempted hack and him where he’s been, who he’s been with, all of it.”  
  
“You think he took Slater?” Sides asked.  
  
“No. She would’ve kicked his ass. I think he had help.”  
  
“Con help?”  
  
I nodded. The information flew across the screen, and I saw it.  
  
“Fuck!” I swore. “He was here! In the house! I swear to Primus that I-”  
  
“That’s not him,” Sides said. “That’s a decepticon.”  
  
I took a second to absorb the information. “Then Rick’s probably dead in his warehouse,” I speculated.  
  
I ran my hand through my hair. “FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! Teletraan security footage!”  
  
Slater had left, and then the Rick bot broke in. I’m assuming they had gone to Rick, since that mother fucker sold me the tech. He tried to hack into Teletraan, but apparently was commed something, took the mustang and left.  
  
I got up grabbed one of my over sized purses from my closet and threw my essentials into it. Teletraans 3-5, my papers, and some cash.  
  
“We’re going to Rick’s warehouse.”  
  
“For what. He’s propbably-“  
  
“Because we’re gonna leave N.E.S.T. a little goodbye note, then we’re going to get our blondes.”  
  


~*|-|*~

  
  
“There,” I said, checking over my handy work, ignoring the smell of death in the air.  
  
Sideswipe glanced over my shoulder.  
  
“A triangle?”  
  
“It’s a pyramid.”  
  
“A pyramid?”  
  
“Yes, a pyramid.”  
  
“Looks like a-“  
  
I cut him off. “Let’s go.”  
  
I walked out to his altmode and hopped in.  
  
I pulled out T5. “T5 get me a lock on Slater’s location.”  
  
“There’s no way you’re gonna find her that easy. The cons-“  
  
“60.0000° N, 105.0000° E”  
  
“Siberia. Fucking amazing.”  
  
“How’d you find her so easily?” Sides asked, shocked.  
  
“I had a tracking microchip implanted under her skin in her left arm. I made it and bribed one of her doctors to inject, when she cut her hand making some metal sculpture thing.”  
  
“You had to bribe the doctor? Didn’t he just- She doesn’t know.”  
  
“Nope. I’ve said it before. I had a period of extreme paranoia.  
  
“Anyways. My family has a fleet of jets and cargo planes constantly bouncing around the globe carrying supplies to the various hotels. I’ll see whichever is closet, and we’ll drive from there.”  
  
“You’re one amazing squishy,” Sides said.  
  
“Yeah. Well I don’t take well to people fucking with my family.”


	15. Damn Dogs Damn Teenagers

Third Person Point of View  
  
“What the fuck does it mean?” Lennox asked.  
  
“I don’t know but this is some bullshit,” Epps said, staring at the imagery on the wall. “Damn dogs biting my ass for what? A con insignia and a triangle.”  
  
“Lennox, I believe you are going to want to see this,” Arcee said, attracting the attention of the man. He walked over to where the Arcee triplets. Were standing around a screen.  
  
“What?”  
  
“It seems our missing All Spark and the Vette left you the message, but they didn’t do the killing. That was a con.”  
  
“And they didn’t take out the camera. Such sloppy work,” Chromia said.  
  
“Ignore her. She is Ironhide’s bonded,” Flare-Up said.  
  
“What the hell are they doing?” Lennox groaned.  
  
“I don’t know man.”  
  
Lennox sighed. “She knows everything. She’s trying to set something up. Someone figure out what that means, and we need to search her house.”  
  
Lennox looked at the footage again. “Damn teenagers.”


	16. What the Hell Did They Do to You

  
  
Somewhere along the line, things changed. I couldn’t tell you where though. I mean- fuck. I probably couldn’t even tell you my name in my current state. Every part of me hurt. I knew that I had to be covered in bruises, and I could feel the blood flowing freely from the wound on my head. The pain in my midsection was ridiculous. My ribs were definitely broken, possibly shattered.  
  
“Useless fragging fleshling!”  
  
With a thud I was hurled into a cold, dark, metal cell.  
  
I groaned, but made no effort to move. I wasn’t lucky enough to die or even pass out. I’m never that lucky. That left me laying there on a cold metal floor with nothing to think about, but the pain and the little birds circling my head. That could not have been a good sign.  
  
The sound of chains rattling within the cell alerted me to the fact that I wasn’t alone. I opened my eyes, which were nearly swollen shut, and glanced around. I could see nothing in the darkness. That was until a red light turned on.  
  
As it brightened I was able to focus, eventually realizing that the light was an optic and that I was probably fucked. Really fucked.  
  
I held my breath hoping that maybe playing dead would work. Wishful thinking.—again, I can never be that lucky. There was a screech of rage alerting me to its attack. Adrenaline surged through me, allowing my body to move without real thought. There was nowhere for me to go that I could see save for towards the door that I had been thrown through. I braced myself against the cool metal. After all the shit I’d been through, and all the shit I’d had to put up with, this is how I was gonna die. The thought of that pissed me off more than the thought of how fucked up all of my tattoos were gonna be when my cuts healed.  
  
The enraged noises that what I’m assuming was a very pissed off bot—or maybe con—had created hadn’t ceased, but nothing had struck me.  
  
I opened my eyes that had been squeezed shut. The dark room was illuminated with blue light that flowed from the wall to two servos. ‘ _The chains,_ ’ I thought. In the light, I could make out its appearance. Dark servos were connected to dented and scratched arms that I followed up to a shoulder joint that was barely hanging there—ouch. The wires were disconnected barely holding the metal in place. From the shoulder strut I looked at its face. Only one optic was online and it showed the pain the mech in front of me was feeling. On either side of its face were two fins.  
  
My foggy mind cleared up for a moment as realization set in. “Oh my fucking God!” I whispered in shock.  
  
The red optic looked towards me.  
  
"Sunstreaker, what the hell did they do to you?"


	17. Mind Fuck

  
  
“Are you alright?” Sides asked.  
  
“No, I’m fucking freezing,” I said, burrowing further into my thirty layers of clothing.  
  
Currently we were in flight on our way to Russia. My family had a plane leaving California with a shipment of shit for the Moscow and St. Petersburg branches. We snuck on. I knew it was gonna be fucking cold but even with Sides blasting the heat, I was still shivering.  
  
“I didn’t think it was that bad.”  
  
“Human,” I said flatly.  
  
I removed the glove from my left hand and pressed it to his holo’s neck.  
  
“Holy shit! You’re warm!” I said, pressing harder.  
  
He tensed underneath me. “Primus, Fleshy!” He grabbed my hand and held it between his, trying to warm it up.  
  
“I told you I was cold.”  
  
He rolled his eyes at me. “Come here,” he said.  
  
“What?”  
  
Another eye roll.  
  
Ignoring, when I squealed, he pulled me across the center console so that I was sitting on his lap.  
  
He unzipped the massive jacket I had on and slid it off of my shoulders.  
  
“Here,” he pulled me into his chest and draped my jacket over us like a blanket. I didn’t hesitate nor question it. I just clung to him like my life depended on it sliding my arms around him, wedging my fingers between his back and the seat. I buried my face in the crook of his neck.  
  
“You’re so warm.”  
  
He chuckled, the sound rumbling through his body. One of his arms was holding me in place. The other was running up and down my back.  
  
“Sorry,” I said after a minute.  
  
“For what?” he asked. “You’re human. You get cold sometimes. It’s-“  
  
“But you’re not particularly fond of humans, and here I am pressed against you in a form that I highly doubt you actually enjoy being in.”  
  
I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. I was entirely too comfortable, where I was, and yet I thought poking the bear was a genius idea. Then again, I knew he wouldn’t do anything. He never did anything. Well to me at least. Some others weren’t so lucky.  
  
Then again I treated him the same way. If anyone else knew the shit he knew about me, I would’ve had then erased from history.  
  
“I don’t mind it actually,” he said.  
  
I was about to ask “who are you and what have you done with Sideswipe,” but changed my mind. ‘ _I guess I was wrong then,_ ’ I thought.  
  
“I have you to thank.”  
  
“Me?”  
  
“Being able to do this has made this weird body so worth it,” he said, holding me a little closer.  
  
I didn’t have a clue what to say to that. He liked being close to me? I guess I understood. I was the only one, who understood what was going on with him. Even then most of the time I had no clue what was actually going on in that processor of his.  
  
I take that back. I was completely clueless. This was not a closeness shared between two friends. Shit. I don’t even think friends was the right word. I mean. Slater was my best friend, but I had never come close to dumping nearly half of my emotional baggage on her, while Sides had taken the full weight of it. I didn’t have to say much to him. He just understood. Thinking about it, I couldn’t understand how I had managed as well as I had without him.  
  
“You’re thinking too hard,” he said.  
  
See. That shit right there was what was fucking with my head.  
  
‘ _What the hell are we?_ ’ I thought, desperately searching through different relationships in my head, hoping to find one I could compare us to.  
  
Unfortunately I didn’t have very much to go on. At least with people I actually knew. None of the relationships, between the soldiers fit, and I hadn’t seen the soldiers with anyone outside of base. I grew up rich, so relationships between people were pretty much none existent. They were connected by bridges of money, sex and opportunity.  
  
“Just go to sleep, Blake,” he said. He sounded like he himself was on the verge of a nice recharge.  
  
“You’re a mind fuck. I hope you know that.”  
  
“I know.”


	18. Fucking Coldplay

  
  
Currently, I was slumped against the metal wall of my cell, watching the Sunstreaker glare at me with his one optic, which was no longer red but white. He was cool, as long as I didn’t sing, which was understandable.  
  
After being zapped into stasis, Sunstreaker had given up on killing me, at least until I got closer, which even if I was stupid enough to want to try, I wouldn't be able to do.  
  
“Your face is gonna get stuck like that if you keep glaring at me,” I muttered, earning an even more intense glare from the bot. I guess the comics were right—he really hated anything that wasn’t made of mechanic parts.  
  
I’d been talking to him for a while. I never said very much, but it didn’t really matter, because it’s not like his bitch ass ever replied anyway.  
  
“So are you keeping those processors muted, because they fucked you up like they did Bee or because I’m organic and 'not worthy?'” I asked, getting annoyed with his lack of communication. I was trying to be nice and he was being a dick. I mean shit, I didn’t chain him up.  
  
His optics turned a little more blue at the mention of Bumblebee.  
  
With that I formed a new plan.  
  
“Because if so I’m pretty sure ratchet can fix you. Bee spoke again, it didn’t last long though. He reinjured it," I said, watching as his eyes turned a nice baby blue shade. They were becoming less and less icy with every mention of a bot.  
  
"Of course he can't talk, but those in sparked morons, Skidz and Mudflap can. Ugh. I wish Sideswipe had actually gotten to offline them before Prime stepped in."  
  
Slightly blue turned to red, and he launched himself at me again. I didn’t even flinch. Instead I watched as yet again he was zapped into stasis.  
  
“Fuck. Fucking hell. Mentioning Sides made him angrier than rapping the entire first verse of _Roman’s Revenge_ by Nicki Minaj. That doesn’t even fucking make sense.” I bitched, rolling my eyes and slumping back against the wall.  
  
He was gonna be in stasis for a while, so I figured now was a good time to try to get some sleep. And to sing some fucking Coldplay cause there’s nothing better when you’re locked in a cell and waiting to die, than singing some motherfucking Coldplay.  
  
“ _Tears stream down your face_  
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes  
Tears stream down your face  
And I...  
Lights will guide you home  
And ignite your bones  
And I will try to fix you-”  
  
That’s it. That’s fucking it. “Sunny, I’m gonna fix you.”


	19. Something Else Worth Fighting For

  
  
“I AM GOING TO FUCKING KILL HER!” I bellowed, looking at the bright yellow beacon blinking over South America.  
  
“What?” Sides asked, holoform appearing in the passenger’s seat.  
  
“She’s over South America,” I said. Then I looked at him. “Turn that shit off. You need to save your damn energy. You just got fucked up by the bond again.”  
  
“I’m fine.”  
  
“Shut the hell up and alt mode only. Which I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to change it. We can’t keep running around the globe like this. The vette is what they’re looking for.”  
  
“What the frag do you-“  
  
Sides stopped, when he saw my gaze turn to Kia Magentis. “No.”  
  
“It won’t last long, and I swear once we get our idiots back, I have a perfect altmode all lined up for you. It’s a sexy ass car, and it’s fast, and it comes in red and yellow. You and Sunstreaker can match for the most part.”  
  
His glared at me, which was very fucking attractive on his [holoform](http://ghfanclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/tumblr_loyfd3yOAF1qcksf5o1_400.jpg).  
  
“Please?” I asked, jutting my bottom lip out and giving him puppy dog eyes.  
  
He sighed. “Fine.”  
  
“It’ll be worth it. I swear, but we need to crash for a little while, so we’re gonna go to one of my family hotels.”  
  
“You don’t think they’re looking for us there?” he asked.  
  
“Of course they are. Hey are looking for Blake Renee DeVille, a red, sometimes blonde haired girl. They are not however looking for Kaleb Kruel.”  
  
I pulled out the gold class card. It was a credit card that worked exclusively at my family’s hotels. You had to be fucking loaded to qualify. I had two Blake and Kaleb for when I didn’t want to be found.  
  
“Kaleb?” he asked.  
  
“Kaleb Kruel is my alias, but today it’s you, so you’re gonna go use this, get us a room and then come and get me.”  
  
“Won’t they-“  
  
“They won’t question a thing. It’s insulting to question a gold card. Now go.”  
  
Forty-five minutes later I was sitting on a king sized bed.  
  
“God I missed it here,” I said, referring to the hotel chain in general. It had been a while, since I had gone to one. I was either at home or on base.  
  
“How many times are you going to say that?” Sides asked.  
  
“Leave me alone okay? It’s weird. I used to be at a different hotel every week, now I barely get to go. This is how grew up. I just missed it.”  
  
I got quiet. I wouldn’t change anything, but I was a bit home sick. I missed traveling wherever whenever. I missed my family. Hell I even missed the annoying parts like board meetings and charity events full of stuffy old people that I just wanted to punch in the face.  
  
“I grew up in the gladiator pits,” Sides said solemnly. “The autobots tore it down and took us in. This was before the entire planet was at war. The cons had been using them as a training ground for their future soldiers. We were young then. Afterwards as with most of the other sparklings we bounced around from neutral territory to neutral territory. I helped some of our caretakers run their shops, until I could’ve sold them their store, and Sunny painted to kill time. All we could think of was the fight. Energon lust that we could finally act upon. Once we were old enough we joined the bots and flew up the ranks becoming part of Optimus’ team.”  
  
He sighed. “I feel like I should miss it more, but I really don’t. I miss my comrades sure, but a normal life? Not really. I feel like without the fight, I don’t know what to do.”  
  
“You find something else to fight for,” I answered.  
  
“When Casey died, I lost it, but eventually I pulled myself together, because I found something else worth doing it for. The war will end, but all that means is that you’ll have to find something else worth fighting for.”


	20. Bumper Stickers

  
  
With a groan the mech in front of me onlined his optics.  
  
“Hey look, Sleeping-Fucking-Beauty is back from the damn ball. How you feelin’, Princess? Have a nice stasis nap, since you over fucking reacted? Fucking hell. You’re just as bad as Blake.”  
  
I rolled my eyes. Why the hell did we want him back so badly? Wasn’t one Blake enough? I doubted that I was going be able to handle both of them. There’s no way in hell the regular soldiers were going to be able to.  
  
“I will kill you Squishy,” he growled.  
  
“I’m sure, because it’s gone so well for you so far. I thought Sideswipe was ridiculous, but at least he has a reason when he attempts to kill someone.” Usually that reason is Blake.  
  
Once again Sunstreaker tried to hit me. Before he could shock the shit out of himself however, his arm gave out and came crashing down on the floor. Bright blue energon began to pool underneath it.  
  
I sighed, and picked myself up, which hurt like hell, but with my luck this idiot was gonna bleed out, and there was no way Sides was going to be able to handle that.  
  
“You severed an energon line. You have two options: let me fix it or kill yourself. Before you tell me to frag off, remember that if you die, so does Sides.”  
  
His usual glare remained intact, but instead of trying to kill me again, he gave me a curt nod.  
  
I felt around for something metal. I still couldn’t see well, but the glowing blue liquid was giving me enough light to manage. I don’t know what it was that I picked up. It may have been part of Sunstreaker. It may have been part of some other captive that the cell had formerly held. I didn’t care.  
  
I tossed it at Sunstreaker’s good arm.  
  
“Make me a wrench,” I instructed.  
  
Rather than fight with me, he made the wrench. I went over and found the source of the energon flow. I was thankful for the lessons in bot repair that Ratchet had given and that Blake had drilled into my head. I could online communications and weapons in my sleep.  
  
Luckily the line had just popped out. It wasn’t severed or anything. It was a simple fix. Reattach the line and then tighten the clamp.  
  
The pain radiating from my ribs was excruciating (not to mention the rest from my battered body), but I had to save this asshole, because he was probably my only way out of that fucking cell.  
  
Plus it would suck if Sides died, because Sides was actually pretty cool. And Primus only knows what his death would do to Blake. I wasn’t ready to deal with that again.  
  
When I was done, I stepped back and observed my work. “That should work for now. I can fix that optic too. I learned that much.”  
  
“I don’t need any more help from a-“  
  
“Fuck! Quit being so fucking difficult. We could probably get out of here, if you weren’t half fucking blind and your systems weren’t down. Get over your fucking self, and let me help you so that we can both get the fuck out of here.”  
  
“Both?”  
  
“Yes, both. If you think for one fucking second that you’re leaving after I’ve saved your ass, you’re in for a rude awakening.”  
  
“Whatever. It’s fair, though the thought of being indebted to a fleshy makes me want to empty my tanks.”  
  
“Again, get the fuck over yourself.”  
  
I moved, so that I was standing in front of his face. His facial plates were dented, and it was a bit harder to fix, since I couldn’t go through the routes that they’d shown me before.  
  
“What are those marking on your sides?” he asked.  
  
“Bruises,” I answered.  
  
“Not those, the images.”  
  
“Tattoos,” I replied, a little taken aback that he was actually showing interest in something involving a human. Something that didn’t involve murder.  
  
“Tattoos?”  
  
“Simple version: permanent art done by jamming ink in our skin with needles.”  
  
He scoffed. “Hardly art. Bumper stickers. Not art.”  
  
I might’ve “accidently” tugged a little too hard on a bundle of wires, causing him to screech in agony. The optic online turned red.  
  
Not my best idea, but he called my tattoos bumper stickers. I broke my hand off of a kids nose once, because he looked at me and said some shit about me getting tattoos was like putting a bumper sticker on a Ferrari. Anyway, I ran like hell—despite the pain—to the wall. He shocked himself into stasis again (for the eighteenth fucking time). Once I was sure he was out, I approached him again, finishing what I had started.  
  
“I should’ve thought of this earlier… fucking bumper stickers.”


	21. Touchy Feely

  
  
One would think that after freezing my ass off for days that waking up sweating would be a welcome change of pace. That one would be what I like to call wrong. Waking up, feeling as if I was roasting in a fucking oven, was equally as annoying.  
  
My first thought was why is it so hot, and my second was about how to relief from the heat. In my tired state answers came slowly, but they came.  
  
The heat was radiating from behind me, which alerted me to the fact that I was not alone in my bed. Sides was with me. I’d slept in his alt mode, on his bipedal mode and with his holoform relatively close by, but it was never like this. I mean we were spooning for fuck’s sake.  
  
I wasn’t sure what to make of the situation. I mean… Just listen to it. I hopped on a cargo plane to Russia with a giant alien robot to find my sister and his brother, who were taken by evil giant alien robots. While in Russia we had a heart to heart, and when I woke up, we were spooning.  
  
That sounds like total nonsense, but it was my reality. Plus I was comfortable as hell, save for the fact it was fucking hot. (Holoforms apparently ran at a higher temp than humans, which was something I’d never thought about.)  
  
This was not normal behavior for us. I mean what the fuck did it even mean, since when did Sides cuddle?  
  
I was giving myself a headache. I decided my first course of action was to escape his hold on my waist and like hang out the window or something, but of course his grip was just as strong as that of his bipedal mode.  
  
Since moving his arms wasn’t an option, I decided to try sliding out of his grip. I grabbed the headboard and pulled, only to have his arms tighten around me, effectively trapping me again.  
  
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I muttered.  
  
“If you want to leave, all you have to do is ask.”  
  
“You’re awake?!”  
  
I turned to look at him. His bright blue eyes, were tired, but I could see that he was amused.  
  
“Prick! Let me go!” I said, thrashing.  
  
He pulled me tighter, so that I couldn’t move. “I’m rather comfy.”  
  
“Sideswipe,” I said in a warning voice.  
  
He released his grip allowing me to finally move away from him to the other side of the bed, where the sheets were still cool. I’d kicked the blankets off of me though.  
  
After a moment, I looked at Sides again  
  
“Why the fuck are you up?” I asked.  
  
“Can’t sleep. Bond feels weird.”  
  
“I thought you closed it.”  
  
“I did, which is why it feels weird. I think whatever happened to Sunny the last few times has happened again. It’s like a nudge, and I want to acknowledge it, but it’s just gonna knock me on my aft again if I do.”  
  
He sounded so pained. There was nothing he wanted more than to feel his brother’s spark, but every time he did, both of them hurt.  
  
“We’re gonna get him. Then Ratchet will fix him, and you two can be one happy set of split spark twins again, just in time for Slater to pelt you with water balloons filled with 100% acetone that she stole from me.”  
  
“Acetone?”  
  
“Stuff in nail polish remover. It’ll strip your paint real fast.”  
  
He shook his head. “You two are glitched.”  
  
“Hey, Pot. I’m Kettle. How are you doing?”  
  
“What?”  
  
“It’s a thing. Look it up.” I waved it off. “Really though. We’re gonna get him. Just hold out a little bit longer. You’ve got something else to focus on, so focus on it.”  
  
“And what would that be?”  
  
“A plan on how the fuck we’re gonna break them out. Because I highly doubt just strolling into Decepticon base camp is an option.”  
  
“I was trying, but I’m too worked up to focus.”  
  
“I thought we-“  
  
“My systems are still processing a hic a cycle.”  
  
“What do you do to calm down?”  
  
“I usually polish my blades or go for a drive, but neither of those are really an option right now, so I was playing with your hair. I was almost asleep, when you woke up.”  
  
Great I woke him up.  
  
I got up and walked over to the thermostat. I turned it down and went back to bed, taking my former spot in front of Sides. I mused my hair. “Have at it.”  
  
He actually took me up on my offer and my lack of sleep paired with Sides playing with my hair didn’t take long to knock me out. Of course I had to pry a little first. “Since when are you so touchy feely?” I asked. “You could barely stand anything organic near you, now you’re here with me.”  
  
He didn’t say anything, and I thought I wasn’t gonna get an answer, which was whatever.  
  
“It’s odd, being like this. You’re organic bodies are so fragile, and very squishy, but you feel so much, and are so compatible with each other. It’s so easy to find comfort from each other with something as simple as a hug. It’s actually rather amazing. Everything for us is emotional. I mean sure there’s a physical aspect, but look at Hide and Chromia for example. Their frames are complete and total opposites. They rely solely on their bond. I don’t really know what I’m trying to say. I guess I like it is all. It’s reassuring to feel you there. You’re not on some other planet or trapped on a decepticon war ship.”  
  
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything. I never realized how afraid he was of losing others, and that I meant enough to him for him to fear losing me. Instead, I slowed myself to drift off to sleep.


	22. Egypt

  
  
"How much longer?" I asked, Sides. I'd been looking at the fucking desert for hours and was getting annoyed.  
  
As soon as the words left my mouth however, a strange feeling came over me.  
  
"Never mind. Not long," I said.  
  
"What changed?" Sides asked.  
  
"I can feel the matrix nearby."  
  
"How?"  
  
"I don't know. I mean it has to be the All Spark, but I don't know how. Ugh." It felt as if something was trying to drag me.  
  
The feeling intensified. One would think that it would get better as we got closer, but that wasn't the case. Eventually we were outside of the ruins that housed the ancient tomb.  
  
“We’re here,” Sides said, stopping in front of the ruins. Once again he was the 'Vette. I grabbed my bag and he let me out, before transforming. There were no signs of Slater and Sunstreaker, but I assumed that they were inside.  
  
“They’re here. I can feel him,” Sides said.  
  
“Quit trying to be Hide, and get inside!” the yell came from within the ruins.  
  
“She’s here. I can hear her,” I said, just to piss her off.  
  
“Bitch!”  
  
I rolled my eyes and walked towards the door. Sure enough she was slumped against a wall as far away from the mech in the room. “Well it appears I have some work to do,” I said glancing between the two. She was petting her little bot, who was on her lap, glaring at Sunstreaker. He hadn’t noticed it. His gaze was fixated on Sides, who was frozen in the door. I would’ve pushed her away from their obvious moment, but I was afraid I’d break something on her.  
  
“You look like shit,” I said.  
  
“You’re a brunette,” she retorted, looking at the dark brown color.  
  
“Got bored in Russia, CIA is all over the place, tried to make myself a little less conspicuous.”  
  
She nodded.  
  
I sighed. “What the hell did they do to you,” I said, kneeling beside her and digging through my bag.  
  
“Beat the shit out of me and threw me in a self with fuck face over there, hoping he’d kill me.”  
  
I had assumed they'd done horrible things to her, but I had pushed that to the recesses of my mind. Of course now, hearing that they'd decided to throw her to Sunstreaker like a mouse to a snake. I bit down on the inside of my mouth. “Just fucking wait,” I muttered. “It’s all fun and games abducting people, breaking into my fucking house, killing my fucking shady ass tech dealer, torturing the twins, until someone fucks their whole operation up. Just fucking wait. Once Sides kicks the shit out of them, I am going to dismantle those mother fuckers, turn them into scrap. Fucking stu-“  
  
"EW! Bitch you're bleeding from the mouth!" she said, trying to scoot herself back further.  
  
"Quit being such a baby, dumpster diver. It's just a little blood.” I spit to the side, and wiped at my mouth, before pulling a large syringe from my bag.  
  
It had a dark silver liquid in it.  
  
"What is that?"  
  
"Don't think about it," I said.  
  
“What the hell were you two doing?” she asked. “Why are you by yourselves? Why were you in Russia?”  
  
I sighed. “Well… We might’ve gone a little bit rogue,” I said.  
  
“What the fuck did you two do?”  
  
“Because someone has been having near spark attacks via his twin, he and I might have decided to go and try to find him, but at my insistence we went to the house to drag you into our little scheme.”  
  
“You were going to go on an unauthorized mission and you’re calling it a scheme?”  
  
“But when we got there, you weren’t there. Neither was the Ferrari or the ‘Stang. You can’t drive both at the same time. They fucking abducted you and they killed Rick. If anyone should’ve killed Rick, it should’ve been me. Fucker tried to hack me. Then we started hoping cargo planes trying to find you and we ended up in Russia, then we were going to head to South America, but you are here.”  
  
“Why Russia?”  
  
“Because- Not important. It was a hunch.” She didn't need to know about my little tracker.  
  
Without warning, I jammed the syringe in her side. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” she screamed. “WHAT THE FUCK?!”  
  
Just then Sunstreaker’s gaze turned to me, eyes slightly tinted.  
  
The baby bot busted out his weapons. “Shoot me, and I disable you,” I threatened.  
  
He held his glare.  
  
Slater took a deep breath. “Holy shit! Warning!”  
  
“If I had warned you, it wouldn’t have been as much fun,” I said.  
  
“What was that?” she asked, getting up. She stretched, cracking every bone that she could.  
  
“Might’ve stolen some nano bots from Hatchet.”  
  
I glanced over at the brothers, who were locked in an embrace. A small smile graced my face.  
  
I gestured to the door. She nodded. We tried to slip away, to give them a moment, but it didn’t go as planned.  
  
“Don’t even think about it, Squishy,” the two echoed.  
  
Sunstreaker’s words were directed at Slater, while Sides were directed at me.  
  
“Ah shit!” Slater swore, placing a hand on my shoulder.  
  
I placed my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes. “Listen, scrap metal. Don’t think you’re allowed to be a dick, just because you’re reunited with the Golden Asshole. I don’t give a fuck. You’ve called me Squishy too many fucking times on this trip. I am Blake. You fucking know that. Call me Squishy again and we’ll see how pretty you look with your paint stripped off.”  
  
“Pathetic,” Sunstreaker spat. He looked at Sides. “That is the Squishy, you associated yourself with?” he sneered.  
  
“I’m the pathetic one?” I asked. “I at least have all of my limbs attached to my fucking body! And at the moment I’m the only hope you have of being fucking fixed, so I suggest you mute your fucking processors!”  
  
Optics began to turn red.  
  
“Damn it, Blake! Why the fuck do you have to go and pick fights!” Slater asked.  
  
“Because I don’t give a fuck!” I yelled.  
  
“I will kill you Squishy!”  
  
“Fucking come at me!” I said.  
  
“Knock it off!” Slater yelled, yanking me back by the arm.  
  
Sides was holding Sunstreaker back.  
  
Once we were outside, Slater lit me up.  
  
“What the hell is wrong with you?! IT HASN’T EVEN BEEN AN HOUR AND YOU’RE PUSHING HIM BACK INTO THE MURDEROUS RAGE I SPENT OVER A WEEK GETTING HIM OUT OF!” she yelled. “I know it’s hard to see around that _enormous_ ego of yours, but take a second to realize that at the moment not everything is about you! He called you pathetic! Big fucking deal! At the moment you have to have to get the hell over yourself! He needs fixed, and he won’t let you near him, if you keep acting like a fucking bitch!”  
  
“I am a bitch.”  
  
“That! That has to fucking quit too! Acting like a cunt, because you’re scared. Ever realize that it doesn’t matter how much you try to distance yourself, that you’re still a wreck afterwards! Every time a coffin comes back you’re devastated, even the ones, whose asses you’ve kicked. It doesn’t matter that you’re a bitch. You care. So how about instead of trying to play it off like you don’t give a fuck about anything other than yourself, you be nice for once, because you two are going to kill each other unless one of you gets over yourself, and I can tell you right now it’s not going to be him.  
  
“And even if you don’t think that’s enough of a reason, do it because the last thing Sideswipe needs right now is for you two to be at each other’s throats.”  
  
I let out a huff.  
  
“What the fuck ever. Can we just get the you-know-what and go the fuck home. I’d rather deal with the fatherly wrath of Lennox right now than deal with this shit.”  
  
I walked back in and was given identical glares from the two mechs.  
  
I rolled my eyes, and went to my bag. I had an idea, and now was as good of a time as ever to test it.  
  
“You need healed. I do it in a second, and if this goes well, I don’t have to touch you.”  
  
“Fleshy I-“  
  
“You don’t like organics. I don’t have to touch you for your benefit,” I said.  
  
“What makes you think that you can suddenly heal me?” he sneered.  
  
“Because I’m the All Spark,” I said. It was me answering his question, but I knew it would piss him off.  
  
He became enraged, and lunged. Sides held him back. “Blake, just do it,” he said.  
  
“Open the bond.”  
  
Russia had been productive. I’d attached metal rods to magnets. I threw them at Sunstreaker. They attached themselves to his body. I channeled the energy from me to the rods and into Sunstreaker. It was a trickle. Too much would kill him. Of course the more energy he had, the harder it was for Sides to hold him. He broke an arm free, and he aimed to fire. Sides pulled his arm back though and the shot went straight into the wall.  
  
Sides flipped Sunstreaker over and pinned him to the ground. His optics were white. He growled something out in cybertronian. Sunstreaker’s optics turned blue, and he slumped in defeat.  
  
Before anything could be said explosions shook the ground outside.  
  
I saw three shadows in the dust.  
  
"You gotta be fucking kidding me."  
  
"Really?" Slater said, exasperated.  
  
"We've got seekers," I said.  
  
“You two stay here,” Sides said. “It’s time for a little Jet Judo.” He drew his swords.  
  
Sunstreaker mimicked his actions.  
  
“You got it. Don’t go getting yourself offlined!”  
  
“Not a chance,” he said.  
  
He and Sunstreaker, tapped swords, before rolling out of the door. I glanced at the hole that the two had left. I hadn't paid much attention, and it didn't even bother to register to anyone else. "Slate." I spun her around towards the wall.  
  
“Well... While they’re preoccupied, we might as well enter that massive hole that they conveniently created and see if what’s in there turns to pixie dust,” she said.  
  
"I've felt the pull of the matrix since we got close," I said, "Not the greatest idea for me to go in there."  
  
“Really?” she asked.  
  
I nodded.  
  
“Suit yourself," she said. She picked my phone out of my pocket and ran towards the tomb.  
  
"What the fuck?! Slater!" She disappeared into the tomb. I stopped just short of entering. Bringing back the most powerful cybertronians to exist in a zombie-like state. It sounded like something Michael Bay would come up with. That lets you know how terrible of an idea it was.  
  
I was so going to kill her.  
  
"Slater!" I hissed into the darkness.  
  
From the joyous shouts coming from outside it didn't seem like the twins were having any issues. Until there was the sound of air swooshing then and a shock wave, which threw me into the tomb.  
  
"Son of a bitch!" I swore.  
  
"Bitch what the hell?" Slater asked.  
  
I opened my eyes and saw a blaster aimed into the cavern.  
  
"SHIT!" I yelled. I scrambled, stumbling further into the tomb bodies, dragging Slater with me.  
  
"What the hell?!"  
  
"Skywarp!" I explained.  
  
The bodies of the prime protected us from the blast, but it made a whole large enough that allowed him to reach a servo in.  
  
We couldn't let him get the matrix. Apparently Slater was thinking the same thing, because she bolted out of our safe spot and grabbed it. Luckily it didn't turn to dust, but she did get slammed into the side of the tomb by Skywarp.  
  
I let out a wail. "SIDESWIPE!" I yelled.  
  
"BLAKE?!" I crept over to where Slater was slumped on the ground unconscious.  
  
Skywarp thrashed his servo around, but it quickly vanished. The enraged roar of the twins made me sigh with relief. I turned my attention back to the idiot.  
  
"Wake up, you idiot!" I hissed. I finally made my way over. The matrix was still in her hand, but I wasn't paying attention to it. I should've maybe. The second I touched her and the All Spark Energy forced its way through my body, bringing me to my knees and causing a pained cry to escape me.  
  
The Matrix glowed blue, before melting into a liquid that looked almost like energon.  
  
"BLAKE?!" Sides yelled again.  
  
"In the tomb!" I screamed. The liquid moved on its own, crawling up around Slater's arm. It then was absorbed into her skin.  
  
I didn't know what was going on.  
  
Sides' holoform entered the tomb.  
  
"I have another syringe full of nanobots. Grab it and inject her with it," I said.  
  
He nodded running off. I crawled over to Slater. The matrix liquid was completely gone, but the image of the legendary key was shining in bright silver on her forearm. "Tell the Primes that I say hello," I said to her. I flipped over on my back. "Idiot."  
  
Sides reentered. "Jam the syringe in her side and push the plunger. Then carry out of her out of here." I took a deep breath and sat up. I forced myself up. I felt as if I'd run a marathon, but I knew that was just because of the super dose of All Spark Energy that had left my body.  
  
I got up and hobbled out of the tomb. "We need to move," I said, exiting. "Now."  
  
"Human, what the frag happened?!" Sunstreaker snarled.  
  
Sides stepped in front of me. "Watch your tone, brother," Sides growled.  
  
"Enough!" I barked. "She absorbed the matrix."  
  
"She what?!"  
  
I sighed. "Skywarp hit her and she was knocked out. She had the matrix. I touched her and it reacted. It melted, and she absorbed it. I can feel it."  
  
"We can work this out later, but Starscream never dies, and someone's government is going to investigate, so we need to move. The nanobots are going to heal her. She'll be just fine in a few hours. Now can we go?"  
  
Sunny glared at me, but nodded.  
  
A while later I opened my eyes. I didn’t even remember falling asleep.  
  
"It's about time you woke up." Sides’ bright blue holo eyes looked down at me.  
  
I swatted at Sides. "Shut up. Where the hell are we?" I asked.  
  
He chuckled, before turning serious. "Are you okay?"  
  
"Yeah, just a little drained. How's Slater?"  
  
"Still out cold, and she's drooling. Sunny's having a fit."  
  
I laughed. "Normally she snores."  
  
"Yeah. You drool," Sides said flatly.  
  
"Shut up! I do not!" I yelled indignantly.  
  
"Yes you do."  
  
"Whatever. You never told me, where we were."  
  
"England."  
  
"England? How long have I been out?"  
  
“Two days. You and I are in some seriously deep slag. Lennox and Prime are waiting for us there."  
  
I groaned.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"How are you?" I asked.  
  
"Fine, a little dinged up, but other than that fine."  
  
"I think I've got a solution."  
  
"Really."  
  
"Lamborghini Leveton, and tell Sunstreaker to get on that as well. My suggestion, for you would be a nice red and gold for him."  
  
Sides zoned out for a second, obviously looking up the car. It only took maybe thirty seconds after that for him to transform, Sunstreaker following suit behind him.  
  
"Now, this is an alt mode."  
  
He revved his engine. "Sounds good," I said.  
  
"I always sound good."  
  
"I'd watch that attitude or else I'll tell everyone about your days as a four door sedan in Moscow."  
  
"You wouldn't."  
  
"I would."  
  
He groaned. "You're a terrible being," he said.  
  
"All part of a day’s work." I yawned.  
  
"Go back to sleep. You're going to need all of the rest that you can get for the bitching out we're going to get."  
  
"Yeah. Sleep sounds good."  
  
"Good night, Blake."  
  
I was out again.


End file.
